HARVARD 

®l)e JFirst American Hnit)er0ttg. 




EARLY HOME OF JOHN HARVARD'S MOTHER, STRATFORD. 



HARVARD 



THE 



iTirst American Itntucreitg 



BY 



GEORGE GARY BUSH 



i!°-k 



^ 







BOSTON 
CUPPLES, UPHAM AND COMPANY 

Wt)t @lo Comer iSaakstare 










Copyright, 18S6, by 
Cupples, Upham & Co. 



All Rights Reserved. 



Electrotyfed 
By C. J. Peters & Son, Boston. 



f 



THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHERS 
UNITE IN DEDICATING THIS BOOK TO 

Cfjarles TO. £lfot, 

PRESIDENT OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 

AS 

AN EXPRESSION OF THEIR HIGH REGARD 

FOR HIS EMINENT ABILITY IN 

THE CONDUCT OF THE 

UNIVERSITY. 



*ii 



CONTENTS 



Introduction Page 9 

Regulations established by the First 

President 19 

College Life 31 

Examinations and Degrees . . 51 
Commencement Day 55 
Character and Number of the Students, 62 
Formation and Powers of the Over- 
seers and Corporation : the Char- 
ters 67 

The Board of Instruction : Fellows . 81 

Character of its Theology ... 92 
The College Disturbed by Religious 

Controversies .... 95 



vi Contents. 

Establishment of a Divinity Professor- 
ship 102 

The Finances : the College sustained 
by the Liberality of Friends at 
Home and Abroad . . . 105 

The First Presidents . . . .123 

Notes 133 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 
Home at Stratford of John Harvard's 

Mother* frontispiece 

Statue of John Harvard, Cambridge, 

Mass title-page 

Signature of John Harvard, Cambridge, 

England f 9 

A Prospect of the Colledges in Cam- 
bridge in New England (1726) . . 9 

Old President's Chair 66 

View of the Colleges at Cambridge, 

Massachusetts (1790) 67 

South View of the Several Halls of 

Harvard College (1823) .... 105 
Cambridge Common in 1784 .... 132 
Monument to Rev. John Harvard . . 160 

* By permission of Henry F. Waters, Esq., Salem, 
Mass., whose indefatigable labors and genealogical in- 
sight succeeded in discovering all that is known to-day 
of John Harvard. 

t For the M. A. degree in the Registry of the Uni- 
versity, 1635. 



HARVARD. 

THE 

FIRST AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 



"The fountain of living waters opened 
in the rock of the desert."— J. Q. Adams. 



4*f/»« 



"THE first settlers 
in New Eng- 
land, recogniz- 
ing the import- 
m tr riA ^^^\^ anceofahigher 
*™fc3&»&J education than 
could be given 
in the common schools, began 
at once the founding of a uni- 
versity. The avowed object of 
this university was the training 
9 of 



io Harvard University. 

of young men for the ministry. 
Nothing could show clearer the 
spirit of these early colonists. 
Though less than four thousand 
in number, and scattered along 
the shores of Massachusetts Bay 
in sixteen hamlets, they were, 
nevertheless, able to engage in 
such an enterprise before ade- 
quate provision had been made 
for food, raiment, shelter, a civil 
government, or divine worship; 
at a time when soil and climate 
had disappointed them, and their 
affairs were in a most critical 
condition; for, not only were 
they called to face famine, dis- 
ease, and death, but the mother 
country and the surrounding sav- 
age tribes were threatening them 
with war. The importance, not 
only of mental cultivation, but 
also of Christian learning, they 
had always valued in England, 
and, as they built their homes 

across 



Harvard University. 1 1 

across the sea, it was with the 
determination " that, if they suc- 
ceeded at all, it should be as 
well instructed Christian men, 
and not as mere conquerors of 
savages, or speculators in gold, 
or silver, or lands."* 

It was near the close of 1636, 
a little more than six years after 
the landing of the Puritans, when 
this first step was taken by the 
General Court of the Massachu- 
setts Colony. At this assembly, 
presided over by Sir Henry 
Vane, governor of the colony, 
the General Court agreed to give 
£400 (a munificent sum for the 
time) towards the founding of a 
school or college, but left the 
question of its location and build- 
ing to be determined by the 
Court that was to sit in Septem- 
ber of the following year. This, 
it is said, was the first assembly 
" in which the people by their 

* See Notes. repre- 



12 Harvard University. 

representatives ever gave their 
own money to found a place of 
education." * At the next Court 
it was decided to locate the col- 
lege at Newtown, or " the New 
Towne," and twelve of the prin- 
cipal magistrates and ministers 
were chosen to carry out this 
design. A few months later, 
they changed the name of the 
town to Cambridge, not only to 
tell their posterity whence they 
came, but also, as Quincy aptly 
says, to indicate " the high des- 
tiny to which they intended 
the institution should aspire."* 
Another year, however, passed 
before the College was organ- 
ized. The impulse given to it 
then was due to aid which came 
from so unexpected a quarter that 
it must have seemed to the devout 
men of New England as a clear 
indication of the divine favor. 
The Rev. John Harvard, a Non- 

* See Notes. COn- 



Harvard University. 13 

conformist minister, was gradu- 
ated, in 1635, from the Puritan 
college of Emmanuel, at Cam- 
bridge, England, and came, two 
years later, to America, and set- 
tled in Charlestown, where he 
immediately took a prominent 
part in town affairs. His con- 
temporaries gave him the title of 
reverend, and he is said to have 
officiated occasionally in Charles- 
town as " minister of God's word." 
One has recently said of him that 
he was " beloved and honored, a 
well-trained and accomplished 
scholar of the type then es- 
teemed,"* and that in the brief 
period of his life in America — 
scarcely more than a year — he 
cemented more closely friend- 
ships that had been begun in 
earlier years. The project of a 
college was then engrossing the 
thought of these early friends and 
doubtless he also became greatly 
* See Notes. inter- 



14 Harvard University, 

interested in it. Thus it hap- 
pened that, when his health 
failed, through his own love of 
learning and through sympathy 
with the project of his daily as- 
sociates, he determined to be- 
queath one-half of his estate, 
probably about £800, besides 
his excellent library of three 
hundred and twenty volumes, 
towards the endowment of the 
college. This bequest rendered 
possible the immediate organi- 
zation of the college, which went 
into operation " on the footing of 
the ancient institutions of Eu- 
rope," and, out of gratitude to 
Harvard, the General Court 
voted that the new institution 
should bear his name. Many 
tributes have been rendered by 
the sons of Harvard College to 
the memory of its founder, but 
neither the words of Everett nor 
of John Quincy Adams seem so 

v fitting 



Harvard University. 15 

fitting as those of President 
Quincy when he says that the 
" noblest and the purest tribute 
to religion and science this west- 
ern world has yet witnessed was 
made by John Harvard in 1638." 

Quincy, in his History of Har- 
vard University, has divided the 
life of the institution into four 
periods. Our design is to at- 
tempt but a summary of the first 
and second of these periods, — 
the first ending in 1692 with the 
granting of the new colonial 
charter, when it had religion as 
its basis and chief object, and 
was designedly conducted as a 
theological institute; and the 
second ending with its first cen- 
tury and the accession of Hol- 
yoke to the presidency, when 
the history of the college was 
marked by bitter religious con- 
troversies. 

Some time in 1637 tne begin- 
ning 



1 6 Harvard University. 

ning was made of this "school of 
the prophets " before which so 
important a history was to open. 
Its first master, Nathaniel Eaton, 
under whose oversight the col- 
lege building was erected, soon 
showed himself unfitted for the 
execution of the task he had un- 
dertaken, and the work passed 
from his hands into the grasp of 
one who was to be not only the 
first but one of the best of Amer- 
ican educators. This was the 
Rev. Henry Dunster, who was 
chosen to the office in August, 
1640, and was the first to receive 
the title of President of Harvard 
College. He had been educated 
at Magdalen College, in Cam- 
bridge, England, where many 
Puritan scholars were then gath- 
ered, and where he must have 
learned to sympathize with the 
aims of the New England set- 
tlers. All accounts describe him 

as 



Harvard University. ij 

as a man of remarkably pure 
character and profound scholar- 
ship. Quincy says of him and 
his successor, the Rev. Charles 
Chauncy, that for learning, tal- 
ent, and fidelity they have been 
"surpassed by no one of their 
successors"; and Dr. Chaplin, 
his biographer, calls him K one 
of the greatest masters of the 
oriental languages that hath been 
known in these ends of the 
earth." 

He was still young and unmar- 
ried when the magistrates and 
ministers of the six towns intrus- 
ted to him the affairs of the embryo 
college.* But the choice was 
most fortunate and for the pros- 
perity beginning with these early 
years and continuing throughout 
its entire history, the college is 
more indebted to the wise ad- 
ministration of President Dunster 
than probably to that of any of 

* See Notes. his 



j8 Harvard University. 

his successors. So excellent was 
the course of instruction framed 
by him that, from the first, the 
college was acknowledged to 
furnish " an education adequate 
to every department of the civil 
or sacred service of the country, 
and not inferior to that of the dis- 
tinguished schools in Europe."* 
Such during his administration 
was the fame of the college that 
young men were sent over from 
England to receive their educa- 
tion. Yet the whole property of 
the college consisted then of but 
a single building, and somewhat 
less than three acres of land,* 
and so few were they in numbers 
that if teachers and pupils had 
been increased tenfold they would 
scarcely have equalled the num- 
ber of professors and instructors 
in Harvard College to-day. The 
building, which was situated in 
the midst of a narrow strip of 

* See Notes. land 



Harvard University. ig 

land " bordering a pleasant river," 
was " thought by some to be too 
gorgeous for a wilderness and 
yet too mean in others' apprehen- 
sions for a college." * 

REGULATIONS ESTABLISHED BY 
THE FIRST PRESIDENT. 

When Dunster assumed the 
presidency there was as yet no 
constitution, no "laws, orders, 
and liberties " as afterwards de- 
vised by him, and no legal gov- 
erning board to whom the finan- 
cial and other interests of the col- 
lege could be intrusted. First of 
all it was necessary to provide 
these. Accordingly, in 1642, a 
constitution was framed, commit- 
ting the management of the col- 
lege to a board of trustees. This 
was followed, in 1650, by a char- 
ter, granted by the legislature, 
creating an additional corporate 

* See Notes. body 



20 Harvard University, 

body with extended powers, who 
should have immediate supervis- 
ion of the affairs of the college. 
The work intrusted to the young 
president was to lay the founda- 
tion for education and discipline. 
This he did by judicious require- 
ments for admission, by thorough 
courses of study, and by con- 
structing a system of government 
that should enter into all the mi- 
nutiae of college life. We should 
expe6l these regulations to con- 
form largely to those then in 
force in the English universities, 
but in point of facl; the resem- 
blances are few; this college in 
the American wilderness was 
mostly a new creation. 

The conditions for admission 
established by President Dunster 
for the examinations of 1642 and 
following years were as follows: 
— " Whoever shall be able to 
read Cicero or any other such 

like 



Harvard University. 21 

like classical author at sight and 
make and speak true Latin * in 
verse and prose, suo ut aiunt 
Marte> and decline perfectly the 
paradigms of nouns and verbs in 
the Greek tongue: Let him then 
and not before be capable of ad- 
mission into the college." * 

It was certainly a higher stan- 
dard in the ancient classics than 
we have to-day, as there are few 
teachers, even, who are able to 
speak and write the Latin lan- 
guage easily and correctly, and 
comparatively few who can read 
Cicero and other familiar classi- 
cal authors at sight. 

After the examinations had 
been successfully passed, the can- 
didates were received into the 
college by the President and Fel- 
lows, who in testimony thereof 
signed a copy of the college laws 
which the students had previous- 
ly copied and brought with them. 

♦See Notes. These 



22 Harvard University. 

These were held as certificates 
of matriculation. The college 
laws and certain other forms that 
must be subscribed to by the stu- 
dents, as also by the fellows, when 
admitted to the college, were in 
Latin. Certain "Rules and Pre- 
cepts " * were also drawn up by 
President Dunster for the gov- 
ernment of the students. Ac- 
cording to these, they must " lay 
Christ in the bottom as the only 
foundation of all sound knowl- 
edge and learning"; must read 
the Scriptures twice daily, and 
" be ready to give an account of 
their proficiency therein " when- 
ever the tutor shall require it; 
eschew " all profanation of God's 
name, attributes, word, ordinan- 
ces and times of worship," and 
strive to retain God and the love 
of his truth in their minds ; " stu- 
diously redeem the time," observ- 
ing the general hours appointed 

* See Notes. for 



Harvard University. 23 

for all the students and also the 
special hours for their own classis, 
and diligently attend the lectures 
" without disturbance by word or 
gesture," and, in case they should 
need help, they are to inquire of 
their fellows or " modestly of 
their tutors"; promise to avoid 
the society of such as lead unfit 
or dissolute lives, and never go 
abroad to other towns without 
the permission of tutors, parents, 
or guardians ; be at their tutor's 
chamber at seven in the morning 
and at five in the evening with 
the stroke of the bell, that they 
may attend to the reading of 
Scripture and prayer, and "give 
an account of their own private 
reading," — none to offend this 
rule above once a week; and in 
the seventh and last it was de- 
clared that if any scholar shall 
be found to transgress any of the 
laws of God or the school, after 

being 



24 Harvard University. 

being twice admonished, he shall, 
if a minor, be chastised, but if 
an adult, his name shall be given 
up to the overseers of the college 
"that he may be admonished at 
the public monthly act." 

Besides these, we find in the 
" Laws, Liberties, and Orders," * 
confirmed by the overseers and 
president of the college in the 
years 1642-6, some excellent 
rules, of which the following 
will afford an illustration : — 

They [the students] shall hon- 
or as their parents, the magis- 
trates, elders, tutors, and others 
older than themselves, " as reason 
requires," by being silent in their 
presence except when called up- 
on to speak; "not contradicting, 
but showing all those marks of 
honor and reverence which are 
in praiseworthy use, such as sa- 
luting with a bow, standing un- 
covered, and the like."* Stu- 

* See Notes. dents 



Harvard University. 25 

dents were forbidden to buy or 
sell anything without the per- 
mission of parents, guardians, or 
tutors; to speak in any language 
but the Latin, unless required to 
do so in their public exercises, 
or absent themselves from pray- 
ers or lectures. They could not, 
until invested with their first de- 
gree, be addressed by their sur- 
name unless fellow commoners 
or members of the nobility. 

As great respect was then paid 
to rank, the students throughout 
their course were " placed " at 
recitation, at commons, and in the 
chapel according to their social 
position. Minute orders were 
given respecting their conduct 
while in the dining hall, and their 
deportment towards the steward 
and " the cook and butler, or 
brewer and baker," who were the 
" officers of the House or Col- 
lege." * 

* See Notes. Very 



26 Harvard University. 

Very strange indeed were the 
regulations governing the con- 
duel: of the freshmen towards the 
other members of the college 
community. They were such as 
the following : " No freshman 
shall wear his hat in the college 
yard, unless it rains, hails, or 
snows, provided he be on foot 
and have not both hands full"; 
" No freshman shall speak to a 
senior (that is, to any member of 
the upper classes) with his hat 
on; or have it on in a senior's 
chamber, or in his own, if a sen- 
ior be there"; " All freshmen 
shall be obliged to go on errands 
for seniors, graduates or under- 
graduates"; but only out of stud} r 
hours. These " Laws, Liberties, 
and Orders " are said to have re- 
mained in force during the seven- 
teenth century. 

The course of study devised 
and adopted by President Dun- 

ster 



Harvard University. 2j 

ster was most liberal and compre- 
hensive, and embraced arithme- 
tic, geometry, rhetoric, logic, eth- 
ics, physics, metaphysics, poli- 
tics, and divinity; and Hebrew, 
Chaldee, Syriac, Latin, Greek, 
and English. The Old and New 
Testaments were principally used 
for the study of the Hebrew, 
Greek, and Latin languages. 
These were used in the daily 
reading and translating of the 
Scriptures at the morning and 
evening prayers. In addition to 
the studies of the course, there 
were lectures in summer on the 
nature of plants, and in winter on 
history, and set themes were an- 
nounced for discussion, some- 
what after the manner of the dis- 
putations in the early German 
Universities, and written theses 
were required of all.* 

The plan of the recitations, in 
which Greek as well as Latin 

♦See Notes. Was 



28 Harvard University. 

was to be specially honored, was 
as follows: 

FRESHMEN. 



Mondays 8 A. M. Lectures upon Logic. 

and 8.45 " " " Physics. 

Tuesdays. 2 P. M. Disputations. 



8 A. M. Etymology and Syntax. 
2 P. M. Precepts of Grammar, 
"in such authors as 
have variety of words." 
Greek. 



Wednes- 
days. 



Thurs- 
days. 



8 A. M. Hebrew Grammar. 

2 P. M. " Practice in the Bible. 



Fridays. 



8 A. M. Rhetoric. 



Declamations.* 



8 A. M. Divinity Catechetical. 

9 " " Common Places." 

1 P.M. History in Winter and the 
Nature of Plants in 
Summer. 



Satur- 
days. 



* These were so ordered that every scholar should de- 
claim once a month. For the remainder of this day it was 
said, " vacat rJtetoricis studiis." 



Harvard University. 



2 9 



JUNIOR SOPHISTERS. 



Mondays 
and 

Tuesdays. 



9 A. M. Lectures upon Ethics and 
Politics " at conveni- 
ent distances of time." 

3 P. M. Disputations. 



Wednes- 
days. 



9 A. M. Prosody and Dialectics. 
3 P. M. Practice in Poesy. 
Greek. 



Thurs- 
days. 



9 A. M. Chaldee. 
3 P. M. " Ezra and Daniel. 
Hebrew. 



Fridays. 



8 A. M. 

9 " 



Rhetoric. 
Declamations. 



Satur- 
days. 



The same as the Freshman. 



SENIOR SOPHISTERS. 



io A. M. Arithmetic and Geom- 
etry. 
10.45 " Astronomy. 
4 P. M. Disputations. 



Mondays 

and 
Tuesdays. 



A.M. Perfected their "theory." 
P. M. Exercises in Style, Com- 
position, Imitation, 
and Epitome, both 
in prose and verse. 
Greek. 



Wednes- 
days. 



Thurs- 
days. 



10 A. M. Svriac. 
4 P. M. Tristius 



(or Trostius) 
New Testament. 
Hebrew. 



Fridays. 



8 A. M. 

9 " 



Rhetoric. 
Declamations.* 



Satur- 
days. 



The same as the Freshman. 



* See note on opposite page. 



jo Harvard University. 

An examination of the " sum 
of every lecture" must be made 
before the next le6ture was read. 
The curriculum, as given in the 
preceding table, extended only 
through three years, but Palfrey 
says * that " in or before the year 
1655, the course of study for a 
bachelor's degree was lengthened 
from three years to four, and that 
in consequence of the change 
some students left the college." * 

♦See Notes. 



Harvard University. 31 



COLLEGE LIFE. 

There could have been no 
more interesting event in early 
colonial life than the opening of 
this college, and the successful 
inauguration of so complete a 
system of instruction. Had Pres- 
ident Dunster's mind been en- 
riched by all the stores of mod- 
ern learning, it would scarcely 
have aided him in framing a sys- 
tem of study and discipline bet- 
ter adapted to the circumstances 
of the time, or more in harmony 
with the training which was then 
demanded for young men. Un- 
fortunately for us, few records 
were made of that period, and we 
must, therefore, rely mostly upon 
the imagination to lift the veil 
which shrouds that first morning 
in 1640 when the light-haired 
Dunster called around him the 

score 



32 Harvard University. 

score of lads who had presented 
themselves for matriculation, and 
plied them with such questions 
as would indicate to him the ex- 
tent of their progress in Latin 
and Greek, and in biblical stud- 
ies. It is difficult, also, to find 
any record * of the routine of col- 
lege life which then began, — of 
the amusements and recreations 
which relieved the tedium of 
study in those hard-working- 
years, when, as it would appear, 
life was more solemn and serious 
to the undergraduate than it be- 
came soon after the opening of 
the eighteenth century. If — to 
cite but a^sktgle regulation — the 
rule adopted by the president, 
that only Latin should be spoken 
on the college grounds, was en- 
forced, it is not possible to sup- 
pose any marked display of exu- 
berance of spirits, unless we are 
to credit the undergraduates 

* See Notes. with 



Harvard University. 33 

with a most intimate knowledge 
of colloquial Latin. The author 
of " New England's First 
Fruits " gives us a bare glimpse 
of this early college life, wherein 
he tells of " a spacious hall " in 
the college building, where the 
students " daily meet at Com- 
mons, lectures and exercises"; of 
a large library " with some books 
to it," and of chambers and stud- 
ies, and " other rooms of office," 
etc. Also, that beside the col- 
lege was the " faire grammar 
schoole," where the famous Mas- 
ter Corlett so long wielded the 
rod. 

President Dunster seems to 
have understood fully the impor- 
tance of work to the good gov- 
ernment of young men. Not only 
every hour had, as it appears, 
some duty assigned to it, but 
even mingled with their public 
devotions, at morning and even- 
ing. 



34 Harvard University. 

ing, there was manifest the same 
purpose to secure mental train- 
ing and discipline; yet, in spite 
of this, there were evidently 
some unruly spirits who sorely 
tried the temper and patience of 
the kind-hearted president. Cer- 
tainly, as shown by the records of 
1656, only two years after he re- 
tired from the presidency, it was 
already the custom to turn " un- 
ruly college boys " over to the 
civil authorities, and the latter, 
we are told, strangely took the 
ground that college criminals 
should fare no " better or other- 
wise than similar offenders out- 
side Parnassus." A law was 
passed by the General Court of 
the Massachusetts Colony, in 
1656, authorizing fines and cor- 
poral punishment, according to 
which the President and Fel- 
lows, or a majority of them, were 
empowered to punish all misde- 
meanors 



Harvard University. 35 

meanors of the students, either by 
fine or public whipping in the 
hall, as the nature of the offence 
might demand, only that the pen- 
alty should not exceed ten shil- 
lings, or ten stripes, for each of- 
fence. This law was to continue 
in force until the General Court 
or the overseers of the college 
should provide some other way 
to punish such offences. In June, 
1659, the corporation of the col- 
lege authorized the Cambridge 
town watch to exercise their 
powers within the college 
" houses and lands," and enforce 
order. This was done " to seek 
redress " for abusive words and 
acts of the students; but the offi- 
cers were in no case to lay vio- 
lent hands on any of them. Their 
duty was simply to secure the 
students until the President or 
some of the Fellows could be in- 
formed. Neither could any of 

the 



j6 Harvard University. 

the watch break into the stu- 
dents' chambers without receiv- 
ing special orders from some 
officer of the college. By another 
a6l, passed by the corporation in 
the same year, any student out 
after nine in the evening was to 
be held responsible for all dis- 
orders that occurred, unless he 
could prove himself innocent. 
In 1682, the civil authority was 
called upon to aid the corpora- 
tion in expelling a student and 
prevent his remaining within the 
college walls after the expiration 
of twenty-four hours. His of- 
fence was "his abusive carriage 
in requiring some of the fresh- 
men to go upon his private er- 
rands, and in striking the said 



freshmen. 



?># 



The system of flogging which 
was early recognized in the col- 
lege, and sanctioned by the Gen- 
eral Court in 1654, was also au- 

* See Notes. thorized 



Harvard University. $y 

thorized by the revised body of 
laws published in 1734. In the 
latter, however, it was limited to 
" boxing of the undergraduates," 
and but a few years later we read 
that " corporal punishment was 
going out of use." In the begin- 
ning the president personally at- 
tended to the flogging, but the 
tutors availed themselves freely 
of their privilege of "boxing" — 
an exercise which may possibly 
account for their unusual vigor 
and long terms of service ; for one 
of them, " Tutor Flynt," served 
the college fifty-five years, and 
others for periods but little short 
of this. When flogging was re- 
sorted to, the occasion was ob- 
served with great solemnity. 
Chief Justice Sewall tells of one 
that occurred in 1674. On that 
occasion the overseers of the 
college, the president and fel- 
lows, the students, and others 

who 



38 Harvard University. 

who chose to attend, having been 
called together in the library, the 
sentence was read in their pres- 
ence and the offender required to 
kneel. The president then of- 
fered prayer, after which the 
" prison-keeper at Cambridge," 
at a given signal from him, " at- 
tended ... to the performance 
of his part of the work." The 
president then closed the " sol- 
emn exercise " with prayer. 
The student thus chastised was 
" suspended from taking his 
bachelor's degree " and required 
to sit alone uncovered at meals 
as long as the president and fel- 
lows should order, and be obe- 
dient to all regulations, or else 
suffer expulsion from the college. 
The college laws of 1650 for- 
bade the students to use tobacco 
" unless permitted by the pres- 
ident with the consent of parents 
or guardians, and on good reason 

first 



Harvard University, 39 

first given by a physician, and 
then in a sober and private man- 
ner." They also prohibited, 
without special permission, the 
attending of public civil meet- 
ings, elections, courts of justice, 
fairs, military parades in college 
hours, or the joining of any mili- 
tary band " unless of known 
gravity, and of approved, sober, 
and virtuous conversation." 

Very early in its history the 
students seem to have given the 
authorities of the college much 
trouble at commencement time. 
A peculiarity of the festivities, 
from which apparently originated 
the " spreads" of Class-day, was 
the fondness of the young men 
for plum-cake. This was disap- 
proved by the corporation, and 
that body, after having repeated- 
ly forbidden its use, passed an 
acl:, June, 1693, putting " an end 
to that custom," and ordering, as 

a 



40 Harvard University. 

a penalty for its violation, a fine 
of twenty shillings and the confis- 
cation of the cakes. The anni- 
versary of commencement had 
already become " a sort of satur- 
nalia for the whole neighbor- 
hood," and the wild revels of the 
students were so prolonged that 
it was necessary to put policemen 
on guard for several days and 
nights together. The various 
repressive measures introduced 
to stop the evil of plum-cake, and 
some other more serious evils, 
seem to have failed of their pur- 
pose, for in June, 1722, the cor- 
poration and overseers united in 
prohibiting the students from the 
use of liquors in their rooms, and 
from "preparing or providing 
either plum-cake or roasted, 
boiled, or baked meats, or pies 
of any kind." In 1727, such was 
the weakness of the college gov- 
ernment that both boards voted 

that 



Harvard University. 41 

that the time for commencement 
should not only be changed and 
the occasion be " more private 
than has been usual," but that 
the day set apart for this anniver- 
sary should be concealed until al- 
most the time for its observance. 
In addition to the concealment, 
the board to whom the matter was 
referred changed the day from 
Wednesday to Friday, " that there 
might be less remaining time of 
the week spent in frolicking." 
At this a6tion the citizens of 
Cambridge and of the neighbor- 
ing towns, as well as the clergy 
of the province, who were accus- 
tomed to observe commence- 
ment as a holiday, were greatly 
incensed, and, as a result of their 
remonstrance, this concealment 
and the practice of holding com- 
mencement on Friday was, in 
1736, discontinued, and Wed- 
nesday was thereafter observed. 

By 



42 Harvard University, 

By another acl; of 1727, the de- 
gree was refused to any who 
should " presume to do anything 
contrary to the acl: of 1722, or 
go about to evade it by plain- 
cake." Besides, if they were 
found guilty of the violation of 
any of these acts after receiving 
the degree, their names should 
" be left or rased out of the cat- 
alogue of graduates." About 
this time the lieutenant-governor 
of the province was asked by the 
president to interfere and "pro- 
hibit the setting up of booths and 
tents on those public days." But 
all efforts to secure order during 
the evening and night following 
commencement seem to have 
been unsuccessful, though it be- 
came customary to station a con- 
stable and six men as a patrol 
"in and about the entry" of the 
college hall. The practice of 
"unsuitable and unseasonable 

dancing 



Harvard University. 43 

dancing" also crept into the col- 
lege to the great detriment of 
good discipline and the sorrow of 
the "honorable governors." In 
the last decade of the first cen- 
tury of the college, during the ad- 
ministration of President Wads- 
worth, the laxity of discipline 
had extended so far that some of 
the tutors purposely absented 
themselves from commence- 
ment — "a thing never known 
before." Immoralities were 
very rapidly increasing among 
the students, and to remedy these 
various evils it was thought ne- 
cessary to adopt vigorous meas- 
ures. Accordingly, a committee 
was appointed by the overseers 
to inquire into the state of the 
college. This committee report- 
ed that the college was "in a 
weak and declining state," and 
recommended the framing of a 
new body of laws, better adapted 

to 



44 Harvard University. 

to the changed conditions of so- 
ciety, and the making of some 
improvements in the method of 
instruction. This was done, and 
the new laws (which were so 
minute that from the moment 
the student matriculated until he 
left college there was no act pos- 
sible on his part that was not 
regulated by some law or fol- 
lowed by some penalty) were 
agreed to by the overseers and 
corporation in 1734. For ab- 
sence from prayers, public wor- 
ship, divinity lectures, or any 
college exercises, fines, — usually 
of so many pence or shillings — 
were imposed for the first of- 
fence, and for repeated offences 
this penalty was followed by ad- 
monitions, degradations, and ex- 
pulsion*; disorders on Sabbath 
evening received the same pun- 
ishment as if made at any time 
during the Sabbath ; tutors were 
* See Notes. required 



Harvard University. 45 

required, in order "to quicken 
diligence," to visit the students' 
rooms in study hours and after 
nine o'clock at night; students 
and graduates were forbidden to 
use punch, flip, and like intoxi- 
cating drinks; all immoralities, 
such as swearing, cursing, un- 
cleanliness, lying, stealing, break- 
ing open chambers, picking 
locks, and playing or sleeping at 
public worship or prayers, were 
visited with severe penalties; 
and graduates, bachelors, and 
masters of arts were subject to 
reproof and to have their rooms 
visited by the president.* 

It is highly probable that the 
occasion of many of the petty 
disorders among the students 
was the quality of food furnished 
at " the scholars' commons." 
Complaints of this kind began 
at an early period, but it was not 
until long afterwards that any 

* See Notes. earnest 



46 Harvard University. 

earnest efforts were made to im- 
prove the commons. Then a 
committee was appointed, clothed 
" with full powers " to rectify the 
disorders and provide " the 
necessary officers, as steward, 
butler, and cook." Among other 
things, this committee decreed 
" that commons be of better qual- 
ity, have more variety, clean 
table-cloths of convenient length 
and breadth twice a week, and 
that plates be allowed." The 
quality of the commons was then 
a matter of great interest to stu- 
dents and tutors, as the over- 
seers had voted that " all who 
had actually studies at college 
and resided there were ordered 
to be in commons " unless ex- 
cused by the president and a 
majority of the tutors. The 
tutors were also required to be 
in the hall during the hours for 
meals, to prevent disorders. The 

colonial 



Harvard University. 47 

colonial government and the 
early patrons of Harvard College 
very strenuously insisted upon 
the maintenance of this feature 
of college life, as they believed 
that many benefits would accrue 
to the students from such associ- 
ation together — that is, by being 
brought up collegiately, and not 
allowed to board here and there 
in private families, as was done 
in some European universities. 

In spite of all that was said at 
the time in disparagement of the 
college, it is evident that it was 
true then, as it is now, that the 
disorders were the work of but 
a small number of the students. 
We know, from the high posi- 
tions afterwards filled by most 
of the graduates, that, in general, 
the character of the students was 
good. The Puritan fathers, how- 
ever, had suffered so much for 
the sake of their religion that 

they 



48 Harvard University. 

they were, doubtless, somewhat 
too severe in their denunciation 
of condu6l that seemed lacking 
in solemn and respectful de- 
corum — which they considered 
the chief outward manifestation 
of a religious life. The college 
regulations required that the stu- 
dents should attend church in 
Cambridge, where " a particular 
gallery" was allotted them; and 
Dr. Cotton Mather tells us that 
they " were greatly benefited 
and their after lives greatly influ- 
enced " by the sermons and coun- 
sels of the devout pastors who 
ministered there, and cites the 
influence of these pastors as sim- 
ilar to that of a certain famous 
preacher at the English Cam- 
bridge. 

The reading and expounding 
of the scriptures at morning and 
evening prayers, which had been 
a marked feature of the daily 

routine 



Harvard University. 49 

routine of college life during the 
first half-century, seems gradu- 
ally to have grown into disfavor, 
so that even Dr. Increase Mather 
— a great stickler for the old 
methods — speaks, in 1698, thus 
contemptuously of this custom, 
which he had evidently neg- 
lected: — "Only to expound to 
forty or fifty children, few of 
them capable of edification by 
such exercises ! " In 1708, soon 
after Leverett became president, 
this custom was revived by the 
corporation. The freshmen were 
then, however, permitted to use 
their English Bibles, but all other 
students were required in the 
morning to read Hebrew from 
the Old Testament and translate 
into Greek, and in the evening 
service read an English or Latin 
version of the New Testament 
and translate into Greek; but this 
was only customary " whenever 

the 



$o Harvard University. 

the president performed the ser- 
vice." A few years later, this 
exercise had become so distaste- 
ful to the students that the presi- 
dent declared that, if he contin- 
ued it, he would have to be 
" supported," indicating his belief 
that there was danger of rebel- 
lion. After 1725, the classes 
met for their scripture reading 
" at the chambers of their respec- 
tive tutors." The morning ser- 
vice then began with a short 
prayer by the president, after 
which he read and expounded a 
chapter from the Old Testament. 
In the evening he read from the 
New. On Saturday the relig- 
ious exercises were varied by 
the singing of a psalm, and on 
Sunday a psalm was sung both 
morning and evening, but the 
exposition of the scripture was 
omitted. On Sunday evening 
one of the students in course was 

called 



Harvard University. 5/ 

called upon to repeat the ser- 
mons preached that day in the 
parish church. 

EXAMINATIONS AND DEGREES. 

During their college course 
the students had weekly decla- 
mations, on Fridays, in the Col- 
lege Hall, and also disputations, 
which either the president or 
one of the fellows moderated.* 
The author of " New England's 
First Fruits " says that in Presi- 
dent Dunster's time public dec- 
lamations in Latin and Greek 
and logical and philosophical 
disputations were held once 
every month " in the audience 
of the magistrates, ministers, and 
other scholars," to test the prog- 
ress of the students in learning 
and godliness. For three weeks 
in June each year all students 
of two or more years' standing 

* See Notes. were 



52 Harvard University, 

were required to attend in the 
" Hall," from nine to eleven and 
from one to three on Mondays 
and Tuesdays, for their annual 
examination. As visitors might 
at this time test their proficiency 
in the studies pursued, and, as it 
was customary for some of the 
overseers of the college to visit 
the school whilst the students 
were thus doing " what they 
called sitting of solstices," these 
were known as " weeks of visita- 
tion." Those who failed to pass 
the examination were " deferred 
to the following year." The 
degree of bachelor* of arts was 
conferred (at least after 1655) 
upon all who had completed the 
four years' course of study, and 
the master's degree upon gradu- 
ates of three years' standing. 
The examinations for these de- 
grees were frequent and close, 
particularly just before com- 
* See Notes. mence- 



Harvard University. 53 

mencement, but good conduct, 
as well as scholarship, was es- 
sential in order to secure a 
degree. To quote from the 
ancient record: "Every scholar 
that on proof is found able to 
read the originals of the Old and 
New Testament [and translate] 
into the Latin tongue and to 
resolve them logically; withal 
being of godly life and conver- 
sation; and at any public ac~t 
hath the approbation of the 
overseers and master of the col- 
lege, is fit to be dignified with 
his first degree." " Every scholar 
that giveth up in writing a 
system or synopsis or sum of 
logic, natural and moral philoso- 
phy, arithmetic, geometry, and 
astronomy; and is ready to de- 
fend his theses or positions; 
withal skilled in the originals as 
above said, and of godly life 
• . . is fit to be dignified with 

his 



54 Harvard University. 

his second degree."* The idea 
of studying in all seven years was, 
it is said, "to answer to the Hor- 
atian character of an artist: — 

• 
" ' Quis studiis annos septem dedit, 
insenuitque 
Libris et curis.' " * 

The candidate for a degree was 
required to make application 
therefor to the overseers. In 
doing this a certain formula was 
followed which President Dun- 
ster had prepared. Other for- 
mulas — for presenting the can- 
didates to the overseers when 
about to receive their degrees; 
those to be used in making a 
public confession; and also cer- 
tificates of character, to be given 
to undergraduates, bachelors, and 
masters of arts — were prepared 
by the indefatigable Dunster.* 

The degrees of bachelor and 
master of arts were the only ones 

* See Notes. author- 



Harvard University. 55 

authorized by the first charter. 
But by the temporary charter of 
1692, the honorary degree of 
doctor of divinity was given to 
President Mather. A like de- 
gree was not given until seventy- 
nine years later, when it was 
received by Mr. Appleton, the 
pastor of the church at Cam- 
bridge. Years before this date, 
however, the laws of Harvard 
College provided for a doctorate 
in divinity; but, " partly from 
the novelty of the matter itself," 
and partly from " the modesty 
of the persons most worthy," 
the degree was not conferred.* 

COMMENCEMENT DAY. 

The first commencement (a 
term borrowed, apparently, from 
the English universities,* and 
meaning the day on which the 
scholar commenced the career of 

* See Notes. bach- 



56 Harvard University. 

bachelor of arts) took place at 
Cambridge on the second Tues- 
day in August, 1642, when a class 
of nine was graduated. Great 
interest was taken in it by all 
the people, and, judging from 
the unusually minute report of 
the proceedings of the day, the 
occasion must have fully met 
the expectations of the friends 
of the college. Indeed, so au- 
spicious was the event consid- 
ered that a letter was addressed 
by the governor and " diverse 
of the ministers" to their friends 
in England, in which they say 
of the students of the first class 
that they were thoroughly exam- 
ined for their commencement, 
and that " the governor, magis- 
trates, and ministers from all 
parts, with all sorts of scholars 
and others in great numbers were 
present and did hear their exer- 
cises; which were Latin and 

Greek 



Harvard University. 57 

Greek orations and declamations, 
and Hebrew analysis, grammat- 
ical, logical, and rhetorical, of 
the psalms: and their answers 
and disputations in logical, ethi- 
cal, physical, and metaphysical 
questions; and so were found 
worthy of the first degree (com- 
monly called bachelor) pro more 
Academiarum in AngliaP 

At this first commencement 
they had printed programmes, 
issued from their own " univer- 
sity press,"* which gave in Latin 
the list of questions to be dis* 
cussed. Of these questions ten 
were in grammar, four in rhet- 
oric, thirteen in logic, eleven in 
ethics, fifteen in physics, and 
four in metaphysics. Quite a 
remarkable fact is to be noted 
in connection with these themes, 
namely that, although the col- 
lege was conducted mostly as a 
theological institute, in accord- 

* See Notes. ance 



5<S Harvard University. 

ance with the political feeling of 
the time, the questions discussed 
were those of philosophy or 
philology. 

At the close of the discussions, 
which were conducted in Latin, 
the candidates were first pre- 
sented to the magistrates and min- 
isters — that is, to the overseers 
— and being approved by them, 
they were then formally admitted 
by the president to the degree of 
bachelor of arts, and " a book of 
arts " was placed in the hand 
of each and power given " to 
read lectures in the hall upon 
any of the arts when they shall 
be thereunto called, and a liberty 
of studying in the library." * 

A few years after the founding 
of the college, the time of com- 
mencement was changed to the 
first Wednesday in July. It was 
then customary, as generally now 
in our colleges, for the candidates 

* See Notes. On 



Harvard University. 59 

on their programmes to dedicate* 
their theses to the governor and to 
other distinguished patrons and 
scholars who were expected to 
be present, and in their saluta- 
tory and valedictory orations to 
address with proper compliments 
" all persons and orders then 
present," and make suitable refer- 
ence to the most remarkable 
occurrences ofthe precedingyear. 
The candidates for the second de- 
gree published their theses " on 
a half sheet," and without any ded- 
ication. The latter theses — usu- 
ally three in number — were dis- 
cussed in the afternoon of com- 
mencement, when it was the cus- 
tom for the President also to de- 
liver an oration in Latin. The 
theses* ofthe graduates did " not 
show such a veneration for Aris- 
totle as is expressed at Queen's 
College in Oxford, where they 
read Aristotle on their knees, 

* See Notes. and 



bo Harvard University, 

and [where] those who take de- 
grees are sworn to defend his phil- 
osophy." While they preferred 
the " Ramean discipline" to the 
Aristotelian, they appear to have 
adopted a liberal philosophy 
which would rank them with 
the " Eclectics," who chose out 
of all philosophies " what they 
liked best in any of them." 

Before the close of the first 
century, the custom had been 
introduced of making a public 
display and parade on commence- 
ment day. The governor, attend- 
ed by his body guard, came from 
Boston by way of Roxbury, and 
often by Watertown, reaching 
Cambridge about ten o'clock. 
A procession, consisting of the 
corporation, overseers, officers 
and students, magistrates, and 
other friends of the college, hav- 
ing then formed,* moved from 
Harvard Hall to the Congrega- 

* See Notes. tionai 



Harvard University. 61 

tional Church, where the exer- 
cises of the day were to take 
place. The opening prayer by 
the President, the salutatory in 
Latin which followed, the part 
assigned to each member of the 
graduating class, the coming for- 
ward to the platform to receive 
their degrees from the President 
while he addressed them in Lat- 
in, constituted the " commence- 
ment exercises." These, or sim- 
ilar exercises, have continued to 
characterize commencement day 
in most American colleges until 
recent times.* 

The morning programme hav- 
ing been concluded, the proces- 
sion returned to Harvard Hall 
for dinner; after which it re- 
formed, and, returning to the 
church, listened to the masters' 
disputations, the President's ad- 
dress, and the valedictory. The 
conferring of the masters' degrees 

* See Notes. then 



62 Harvard University. 

then followed, at the conclusion 
of which the students escorted 
the governor, corporation, and 
overseers in procession to the 
President's house, and thus the 
ceremonies of the day were 
closed. 



CHARACTER AND NUMBER OF 
THE STUDENTS. 

As far as we are able to form 
an estimate of the early gradu- 
ates of Harvard College, we 
judge that they would compare 
well in character, ability, and 
scholarship with the graduates 
of to-day. Our best source of 
information respecting them is 
the Magnalia of Cotton Mather. 
From this it appears that during 
the first half-century nearly or 
quite half entered the ministry, 
many of whom attained to high 
positions in the church. The 

histo- 



Harvard University, 63 

historian Hubbard also writes, 
about 1680-2, that " most of the 
towns in the country, about a 
hundred in all, [were] furnished 
with able ministers that there 
had their education." With the 
exception of Dunster and Chaun- 
cy, all the presidents and tutors 
of Harvard College were chosen 
from among its graduates. It 
also sent out into public life 
magistrates, physicians, and 
others whose services were an 
honor to the commonwealth. 
For more than thirty years be- 
fore Mather wrote the Magnalia, 
all the agents sent over by this 
country to appear at Whitehall 
to represent its interests were 
educated at this college. After 
the execution of Charles I., many 
of the graduates settled in Eng- 
land and became eminent as 
clergymen, public writers, and 
officers of the civil government. 

These 



64 Harvard University. 

These early students came from 
all the New England colonies; 
the single town of New Haven, 
it is said, up to the year 1700, 
having furnished one-thirtieth of 
the whole number. 

The education of both "the 
English and the Indian youth of 
the country in knowledge and 
godliness " was, according to the 
charter of 1650, the object sought 
in the establishment of a college. 
The education and the conversion 
of the Indians seem to have been 
among the deeply cherished plans 
of the Puritans. In furtherance 
of this design, with the aid of the 
London Society, a brick building, 
large enough to receive twenty 
scholars, was erected on the 
grounds in 1653, and called In- 
dian College, but it was never 
needed. There were at one 
time several Indian students, but 
only one, in 1665, received the 

bach- 



Harvard University. 65 

bachelor's degree. As this one 
soon after died of consumption, 
further efforts for the education 
of Indian youth were mostly 
abandoned. 

The number of students at 
Harvard College during the first 
period must have been very 
small. Indeed, during the first 
sixty-five years to the beginning 
of Leverett's presidency, there 
were only five hundred and 
thirty-one graduated, — an aver- 
age of about eight each year. 
After this period, the number of 
graduates rapidly increased, and 
before the termination of the first 
century it passed out of the years of 
its apprenticeship, during which 
it was seldom free from pinching 
poverty and internal conflicts, 
and entered upon the more placid 
period of its maturity, with en- 
powed professorships in the chairs 
of divinity and mathematics, and 

with 



66 Harvard University, 

with greater advantages for study 
and research in all departments 



of college work, 




Old President's Chair. 



//. 



Formation and Powers of the Overseers 
and Corporation : the Charters. 

Harvard College has been 
called the child of the people. 
Its claim to this title is derived 
from the a6l of the General Court 
of the Massachusetts colony in 
1636, when, as an expression of 
the popular wish, it was voted 
that £400 be given for the estab- 
lishment of a college. Its inter- 
ests appear to have been at first 
intrusted to the General Court, 
but, by the a6l of 1642, a board 
of overseers was created to whom 
the management was transferred. 
This board, consisting of the 
governor and deputy governor 
of the colony, " magistrates in 
the jurisdiction," president of the 

6 7 COl- 



68 Harvard University, 

college, and the " teaching elders" 
of the towns of Cambridge, Wa- 
tertown, Charlestown, Boston, 
Roxbury, and Dorchester, met 
for the first time December 27, 
1643. To it was given full power 
to make and establish such laws 
as were thought necessary for 
promoting the best interests of 
the college " in piety, morality, 
and learning"; also to receive 
and invest all gifts, legacies, or 
other donations that had been or 
might be given to the college. 
The majority of the magistrates 
and teaching elders with the 
president were to have the power 
of the whole, but any aggrieved 
party could appeal from their 
decision to the full board of over- 
seers, who were " accountable 
to the General Court." * It was 
soon found that the board was 
too large to have the immediate 
direction of college affairs, and 

* See Notes. when 



Harvard University. 6g 

when, in May, 1650, the legisla- 
ture framed a charter for the col- 
i lege, it gave enlarged powers to 
I a corporation, composed of seven 
persons, all of whom should be 
residents of the Massachusetts 
Bay. This body was to consist 
, I of a president, five fellows, and 
a treasurer or bursar, who should 
have perpetual succession by the 
election of members to supply 
vacancies,* and was to be styled 
President and Fellows of Har- 
vard College. It was organized 
soon after the act was passed, 
and came to be known in the 
community as the " Corporation." 
The powers and limitations of 
this body, as defined by the char- 
ter, which for a long time was 
the only act authorizing it, were 
as follows : — The members of 
this board, or a majority of them, 
of which the president of the 
college was to be chairman, could 

* See Notes. with 



jo Harvard University. 

with the "counsel and consent" 
of the overseers ele6t a new 
president, fellows, or treasurer; 
purchase or receive upon free 
gift " any lands, tenements, or 
hereditaments " within the juris- 
diction of the Massachusetts col- 
ony — not exceeding £500 per 
annum; also " any goods or sums 
of money whatsoever to the use 
and behoof of the said president, 
fellows, and scholars of the said 
college"; "sue and plead or be 
sued and impleaded " within the 
jurisdiction aforesaid; make and 
appoint a common seal * for the 
use of the said corporation ; 
choose officers and servants and 
make allowances to them, and, 
as occasion required, make "such 
orders and by-laws for the better 
ordering and carrying on the 
work of the college as they shall 
think fit, — provided the said or- 
ders be allowed by the over- 

* See Notes. Seers 



Harvard University. yi 

seers " ; also (by the president 
giving due notice and calling a 
meeting), dispose of the profits 
and revenues of any lands, but 
always in accordance with the 
will of the donors; direct in all 
emergent occasions, and in grave 
and difficult cases procure a full 
meeting of the overseers and 
corporation, — in all of which 
acts the majority of the members 
of the corporation should first de- 
cide, and the overseers were then 
to give their consent thereto. It 
was further provided that all 
these transactions should be for 
the good of the college, " for the 
advancement and education of 
youth in all manner of good lit- 
erature, arts, and sciences." 

As it was found impracticable 
for the corporation to get the 
immediate consent of the over- 
seers, at the request of the latter, 
and to obviate the difficulty oc- 
casioned 



J2 Harvard University. 

casioned by this double authority, 
an appendix to the college char- 
ter was granted by the General 
Court in 1657. According to 
the appendix, any order of the 
corporation could be executed 
without the consent of the over- 
seers, but the former board was 
still responsible to the latter, and 
any order or by-law passed by 
them was " alterable by the over- 
seers according to their discre- 
tion." Hence it became possible 
for the corporation to acl: inde- 
pendently in respect to all affairs 
pertaining to the government of 
the students and college-servants, 
as also in establishing salaries or 
allowances; in disposing of the 
income of the college and the 
profits and revenues of lands; 
in receiving gifts and attending 
to other matters of a like nature, 
— save only that their action was 
subject to revision by the over- 
seers 



Harvard University. j$ 

seers. Whenever it was thought 
best to call a meeting of the 
overseers to give validity to col- 
lege acts, it was only necessary 
to notify those who were resi- 
dents of the six towns mentioned 
in the act of 1642. 

As originally chosen by the 
General Court, there were twelve 
overseers, six of whom belonged 
to the magistrates and six to the 
clergymen of Cambridge and 
the adjacent towns. The pow- 
ers intrusted to this board, and 
its position and influence, cannot 
be so well understood by search- 
ing into the original constitution 
as into the subsequent acts of the 
General Court. Its relation to 
the corporation was for a long 
time far from pleasant. During 
Leverett's administration it let 
no opportunity pass to keep alive 
a spirit of opposition to the cor- 
poration on account of theologi- 
cal differences. The 



74 Harvard University. 

The relation of the two bodies 
to each other at a later period is 
illustrated by the following : In 
the revision of the laws which 
took place in 1734, during Presi- 
dent Wadsworth's administra- 
tion, the overseers intrusted the 
matter to the corporation. This 
body, having revised the laws, 
presented them to the overseers 
for approval, by whom they were 
first amended, and then adopted 
and " published in the college 
hall in the presence of the over- 
seers, the corporation, and the 
whole body of students." This 
was the first code of laws known 
to have been passed by both 
boards with the observance of all 
the forms which afterwards pre- 
vailed and which continue to this 
day. That is, the amendments 
proposed by the overseers were 
first recommended to the consid- 
eration of the corporation, and 

all 



Harvard University. 75 

all further action suspended until 
" the law so amended was again 
presented to the overseers for 
their consent." In this way the 
whole body of laws was agreed 
to by both boards.* 

On the whole, it may be said 
that the organization of the col- 
lege was "a singular specimen 
of skill and good fortune com- 
bined." Its large and constantly 
changing board of overseers 
made it sufficiently responsible 
to the community, and the slow- 
ness with which changes took 
place in the corporation gave 
assurance that no hasty action 
would be taken in modifying the 
administration of the college. 
The original records of the a6ts 
of the overseers prior to Presi- 
dent Leverett's term cannot be 
found, but Leverett himself made 
extracts from "the old Over- 
seers' Book," which it is sup- 

* See Notes. posed 



y6 Harvard University, 

posed no longer exists. There 
appear to have been few entries 
of the meetings of the corpora- 
tion previous to 1692. The new 
charter of that year, which was 
not sanctioned by the crown, 
is given almost in full. From 
that year until 1708 the records 
are complete, and also after that 
date until at least 1750, during 
which time they were kept with 
great accuracy by the successive 
presidents. In 1673, by an order 
of the General Court, " some ad- 
dition was made to the number 
of the corporation,"* but, with 
the exception of this change, the 
charter of 1650 continued in force 
until 1685, when the colony 
charter was vacated. In that 
year Mr. Dudley, having received 
a commission as president of the 
colony, named the head of the 
college rector, but did not inter- 
fere with the government and 

* See Notes. prop- 



Harvard University. yp 

property of the college. In 1691, 
a provincial charter, granted by 
William and Mary, secured to 
the college all its property. Still, 
during the troubles that began 
with the vacating of the colonial 
charter and continued for some 
years, the president of the colony 
and afterwards the royal gov- 
ernor assumed, whenever they 
saw fit, entire authority over the 
college. 

From 1672, when the legisla- 
ture sought to alter the name of 
the corporation from President 
and Fellows to President, Fel- 
lows, and Treasurer; to modify 
some powers previously belong- 
ing to it, and grant important 
additional ones, civil and colle- 
giate, until 1707, the college was 
not satisfied with its charter, and 
framed various new ones in the 
endeavor to secure a charter that 
would be acceptable both to the 

crown 



j8 t Harvard University. 

crown and the authorities of 
the college.* One of these, 
drawn up by President Mather 
and accepted by the General 
Court in 1692, contained some 
very extraordinary provisions. 
To give an instance: it author- 
ized a corporation often persons 
with perpetual succession, hav- 
ing absolute power to fill vacan- 
cies, ele6l officers of the college, 
hold land to the amount of 
£4000 per annum and personal 
estate to any amount; it ex- 
empted all the real and personal 
property belonging to the col- 
lege and president from public 
taxes; and students, officers, and 
servants to the number of fifteen 
from military services. For four 
years the college was governed 
by this charter, but the royal as- 
sent being at length refused, it 
had to be abandoned. In all of 
the new charters provision for a 

* See Notes. board 



Harvard University. yg 

board of overseers was omitted 
and the corporation enlarged, — 
usually to seventeen members, of 
whom a majority were to be 
taken from the Puritan clergy. 
But the special ground of the 
royal complaint was the secta- 
rian clause introduced into each, 
and also the provision for a visi- 
tation of the college by "the 
Governor and council instead of 
by the King and his governors." 
The charter of 1700, by reason 
of the death of the royal gov- 
ernor, was never presented to 
the king, and no subsequent at- 
tempt was ever made to obtain 
a charter from the crown.* 

It is worthy of mention that 
in these attempts to obtain a new 
charter, as in all matters pertain- 
ing to the college, the Council 
and House of Representatives of 
the Massachusetts Colony took 
most intelligent and active inter- 

* See Notes. est 



80 Harvard University. 

est. Principally through the influ- 
ence of Governor Dudley, the leg- 
islature, in December, 1707, de- 
clared that the charter of 1650 had 
never been repealed, and directed 
the president and fellows of the 
college to exercise the powers 
granted by it. This reduced the 
number of the corporation to 
seven, as at the first, and the act 
" thus revived by a legislative 
resolve has been ever since rec- 
ognized as the charter of the 
college." During this period 
from 1684 until the revival of 
the act of 1650, the succes- 
sive royal governors of the prov- 
ince of the Massachusetts Bay 
were accustomed " to assume 
the whole control in respect to 
the organization of the college," 
but they acted in harmony "with 
the wishes of those who had its 
interests at heart," and, moreover, 
made no attempt to violate the 

pro- 



Harvard University. 8r 

provisions of the original charter. 
But it was not until the State 
constitution was adopted, in 1780, 
when articles were framed, se- 
curing to the college the perpet- 
ual possession and enjoyment of 
all its estates, that the charter 
received official sanction, — "the 
lieutenant-governor, council, and 
senate of the commonwealth," to- 
gether with the president of the 
college and " the ministers of 
the Congregational churches " in 
the six towns before mentioned, 
being then vested with all the 
rights pertaining to the Over- 
seers of Harvard College.* 

THE BOARD OF INSTRUCTION: 
FELLOWS. 

As early as 1708 the title, 
"The President and Resident 
Fellows," began to be used to 
designate what has later been 

* See Notes. known 



82 Harvard University. 

known as the " Faculty of the 
College." Two or three years 
later, to distinguish those tutors 
who were not members of the 
corporation from " resident fel- 
lows," the title, " Fellows of the 
College or House," was adopted, 
and about this time a tutor 
was inaugurated Fellow of the 
House. This was the first so- 
lemnity of the kind after the res- 
toration of the charter, and was 
celebrated by the express injunc- 
tion of the governor of the prov- 
ince and the overseers of Har- 
vard College. Evidently its pur- 
pose was to make the distinction 
clearer between a fellow of the 
corporation and a fellow of the 
house — the former having no in- 
auguration. During Leverett's 
presidency, two tutors, who had 
been serving for several years as 
fellows of the house, suddenly 
laid claim to seats in the corpora- 
tion 



Harvard University. 8} 

tion. But their claim was not al- 
lowed, and there seems to have 
been no foundation for it, either 
in the charter or in precedent* 
The plan for establishing fel- 
lowships was inaugurated by 
President Dunster and com- 
mended to the liberality of the 
people through the commission- 
ers of the United Colonies. From 
the opinion expressed in the fol- 
lowing, " Whereas it is expedi- 
ent that pious, diligent, and 
learned graduates should be 
elected fellows, as emergent oc- 
casions shall require, and that 
they should have for their en- 
couragement the stipend due 
from such scholars as are under 
their tuition," it is evident that 
he did not intend to make the 
term " fellow " apply exclusively 
to any particular class of men, or 
to " any academical quality as 
essential." 

* See Notes. Col- 



84 Harvard University. 

College fellowships* were first 
instituted at Oxford and Cam- 
bridge, England, and the pur- 
poses which they were designed 
to serve were chiefly four: First, 
as a reward for high scholarship; 
second, as a ladder for the indi- 
gent student to rise by; third, as 
a recompense for the instruction 
which was to be given; and 
fourth, " the holders of fellow- 
ships were to form the governing 
board of the college." * They 
were elected, after a competitive 
examination, by the officers of 
the college and could at Oxford 
hold the fellowships for life, un- 
less they married, acquired prop- 
erty, or gained preferment in the 
church. Accordingly, "fellow" 
could be applied to resident and 
non-resident instructors, to stu- 
dent undergraduates, — as is 
shown by donations made for the 
benefit of fellows who were un- 

* See Notes. der- 



Harvard University. 85 

derstood to be students, — and 
also to a "fellow of the college" 
in the sense of " the Latin word 
of which it is a translation, sim- 
ply designating an associate or 
member of a society for what- 
ever purpose." 

The term seems to have been 
employed also at Harvard Col- 
lege in all these senses, though 
the second one is the more rarely 
met with; still, in the earliest 
years, it was never applied to the 
instructors.* Eliot says * that, as 
a result of the disputes which 
arose, the conclusion was " that 
the word had too many acknowl- 
edged meanings to be tied down 
to one exclusive signification." 
For some years after 1642 the 
president, assisted by one or two 
tutors, whom he chose from the 
resident " Sirs " or bachelors, 
gave all the instruction, but after 
the formation of the corporation 

* See Notes. it 



86 Harvard University, 

it was customary for one or more 
of the fellows to be resident in- 
structors. After 1684, always 
one or two and perhaps at one 
time three of the tutors were fel- 
lows of the corporation; but, 
though there were ten, twelve, 
and once fifteen fellows of the 
corporation, the others were 
neither resident, nor gave in- 
struction, nor received a stipend. 
Not until after 1725 did the pres- 
ident and tutors assume the au- 
thority of an independent board 
on all subjects of discipline. Be- 
fore this time the tutors, on their 
personal responsibility, had im- 
posed fines or " boxed " the stu- 
dents, and greater offences had 
been punished by the president, 
after consultation with the tutors, 
but of this phase of college life 
there was rarely any record kept. 
Still, that the officers of instruc- 
tion enjoyed yet but a limited 

auth- 



Harvard University. 8y 

authority, is shown by the vote 
of the overseers, in 1735, that the 
president and tutors have no 
authority by any law to introduce 
or permit any person to give in- 
struction in the college. This 
resolve was called forth by the 
conduct of the teacher of French, 
who, it seems, had been em- 
ployed without the consent of 
the overseers, and who was 
thought to be disseminating dan- 
gerous errors. 

About this time, or a little 
earlier, Mr. Thomas Hollis, a 
wealthy merchant of London, es- 
tablished two professorships, by 
means of which the president, 
who had previously had only 
tutors to aid him in instruction 
and discipline, gained "the assis- 
tance of two men of eminence in 
very important departments of 
learning." 

What the president's duties 

were 



88 Harvard University. 

were during the first period of 
the college does not seem very 
clear. One of the most impor- 
tant would appear to have been 
the expounding of the Scriptures. 
This he often did as many as 
" eight or nine times in the course 
of a week." Other duties de- 
volving upon him were to guard 
the morals and conduct, of the 
students; preside at the meetings 
of the corporation, and, after 
1725, at those of the faculty; 
attend the meetings of the over- 
seers and record the proceed- 
ings; act as moderator of the 
weekly declamations and dispu- 
tations as often as he could be 
present, and, as happened in the 
case of the first president (and 
also of Mr. Eaton, the master 
who preceded him), fill the po- 
sition of treasurer to the college. 
To these duties must be added 
the giving instruction in the class- 
room 



Harvard University, 8g 

room, at least at first, and the 
keeping, for a time, of the records 
of the corporation. 

We have seen that the charter 
of 1650 gave to a majority of the 
corporation, when confirmed by 
the overseers, the power to ele6l 
a president; moreover that in 
the election of the first president 
this power was assumed by the 
magistrates and ministers. No 
record of the earlier elections 
has been left us, but the pro- 
ceedings on the occasion of Lev- 
erett's election are fully recorded, 
and were as follows : First a vote 
was taken by the corporation, 
and this was decided by a major- 
ity of those present. The vote 
was then officially presented to 
the governor, accompanied by 
an address, praying that he would 
accept it and move the General 
Assembly to ratify it. Then fol- 
lowed other addresses to the 

gover- 



go Harvard University. 

governor by members of the 
clergy who favored Leverett's 
election, after which the gover- 
nor communicated the proceed- 
ings to the council, who, having 
voted affirmatively, sent the mat- 
ter to the representatives for their 
concurrence. The president be- 
ing chosen, the General Court 
voted the salary that should be 
paid him, for this was to be 
taken from the colonial treasury. 
A few weeks later, the " 14th 
January, 1708, John Leverett was 
inducted into the office of pres- 
ident of Harvard College, by 
Governor Dudley; the overseers, 
corporation, and resident fellows 
being present on that occasion."* 
Though the General Court voted 
a definite salary to the president 
at the time of his election, it 
often, in the case of the first 
incumbents of the office, failed to 
provide money for paying it, oc- 

* See Notes. casion- 



Harvard University, gi 

casioning thereby great distress, 
and calling forth from the suf- 
ferers most pathetic though manly 
appeals. At a later date the 
tutors were also paid out of the 
colonial treasury, besides receiv- 
ing what was " due to them from 
their several pupils." In 1686 
the college had four assistants, 
or " Scholars of the House," 
who were each allowed a sti- 
pend of at least five pounds ster- 
ling. The charter of 1650 ex- 
empted the property of the presi- 
dent and college, not exceed- 
ing £500 per annum, from all 
taxes and rates; the president, 
fellows, and scholars, and the 
officers and servants to the num- 
ber of ten, " from all personal 
civil offices, military exercises 
or services, watchings and ward- 
ings," and, except as above 
stated, their estates, not exceed- 
ing £100 to each person, from 

all 



92 Harvard University. 

all country rates and taxes what- 



soever. 



CHARACTER OF ITS THEOLOGY. 

In sketching the early history 
of the first American university, 
due recognition should be given 
to the vast influence exerted by 
it upon the theology of the time. 
Its history in this respect is most 
remarkable. Its founders were 
of the strictest sect of the Puri- 
tans — of all men those who 
wished to propagate Christian 
doctrines as they understood 
them, and who had chiefly for 
this purpose united together to 
establish a college. Yet the con- 
stitution of the college was whol- 
ly free from sectarian bias and 
illiberal doctrines, and so much 
did it favor the freest pursuit of 
truth in matters of theology, and 
freedom of opinion in all things, 

that 



Harvard University. 93 

that it required no subscription 
or declaration of faith from any 
officer of the college. So marked 
is this fact that one has well 
said that we cannot to-day " de- 
vise any terms more unexcep- 
tionable to assure the enjoyment 
of equal privileges to every re- 
ligious seel: or party." 45 " It is 
not probable that all the clergy, 
and perhaps not a majority of 
them, favored such liberality on 
the part of the framers of the 
first charter, yet, as far as we 
know, they suffered it without 
protest. Certainly the first two 
presidents held views widely at 
variance with the orthodox the- 
ology of the time, but the second 
never suffered therefor, and the 
same might have been said of 
the first had he not made it a 
matter of conscience to publicly 
disseminate his views upon in- 
fant baptism. The reason of 

* See Notes. this 



94 Harvard University. 

this tolerance of opinion may 
possibly be found in the fact 
that there was a perfect church 
establishment, or theocracy,* dur- 
ing the first sixty years of the 
colonial government, or until 
the vacating of the charter in 
1684; or perhaps even to 1692, 
up to which year only church 
members were freemen and could 
vote. The civil constitution, 
therefore, would sufficiently 
guard their religious opinions 
without any mention of them in 
the college charter. It is easy 
then to see that by the new col- 
onial charter, granted by Wil- 
liam and Mary, in 1692, there 
was effected in the Massachu- 
setts colony " as perfect and 
thorough a revolution as ever 
was produced by a similar act 
in any state or nation."* It 
changed the entire foundation 
and object of the government. 

* See Notes. It 



Harvard University, 95 

It made freehold and property, 
instead of church membership, 
the qualification of the right of 
ele&ing and being elected to 
office. 



THE COLLEGE DISTURBED BY 
RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSIES. 

At a later day, under the in- 
fluence of the Mathers, and as a 
result of the dissolution of the 
first colonial charter and the 
weakening of the power of the 
clergy, the constitution of the 
college became a favorite sub- 
ject of management in political 
circles, as is shown by the dif- 
ferent charters that were drafted. 
Bitter religious controversies also 
sprang up between the two par- 
ties into which the friends of 
the college were divided, which 
at one time imperilled the life 
of the college. 

But 



q6 Harvard University. 

But long before this contest 
was over Dr. Increase Mather, 
who, when it began, was its 
leading spirit, had suffered the 
loss of nearly all his influence. 
President Mather had doubtless 
been the most influential and 
popular man in the church and 
colony (having been president of 
the college, pastor of the Old 
North Church, and chief commis- 
sioner to the King to secure a 
new colonial charter), but there 
had come a sudden revulsion of 
feeling towards him, and this was 
occasioned principally through 
disappointment in the provisions 
of the charter which he had been 
instrumental in framing. The 
effe6t of this charter was to strip 
the Calvinist leaders of the power 
which they had so long wielded. 
This was evidently unlooked for 
by them, and they struggled long 
to regain what had been lost, 

but 



Harvard University. 97 

but in vain. A new spirit had 
arisen and was being gladly wel- 
comed by a large and intelligent 
body of the people, who longed 
for greater freedom of inquiry in 
all matters pertaining to their 
spiritual life. It would not be 
relevant to our purpose to enter 
into the details of this contro- 
versy. Dr. Mather resigned the 
presidency of the college in 1701, 
and during the interregnum of 
over six years which followed, 
Vice-President Willard was act- 
ing president, though, like Dr. 
Mather, he did not reside at the 
college. When, in 1707, a new 
election took place, Dr. Mather 
and his son, Cotton Mather, ex- 
pected that upon one or the other 
the choice of president would 
fall. The candidate opposed to 
them was John Leverett, — teach- 
er, legislator, and theologian, 
— a man who was not in sympa- 
thy 



p8 Harvard University. 

thy with the rigid sectarianism 
and severe church discipline of 
the Puritan generation which had 
preceded him, and to which the 
great body of orthodox believers 
still adhered. But it was so pa- 
tent to all that he was well fitted 
by temperament, learning, and 
experience for the presidency of 
the college, that the lot fell to 
him. Still, the selection of Lev- 
erett was so bitter a disappoint- 
ment to the Mathers on personal 
grounds, and to some others on 
account of his liberalism in re- 
ligious matters, that a party was 
formed in opposition who strove 
unceasingly to weaken his influ- 
ence and bring discredit upon 
all measures instituted by him. 
A plan was even formed to dis- 
solve the corporation,* and, by 
electing a new one friendly to 
their views, effecl: the removal of 
the president. It would seem 

*See Notes. that 



Harvard University. 99 

that a majority of the General 
Court, as also of the overseers of 
the college and of the high Cal- 
vinists generally, were in sympa- 
thy with this movement, and 
that it would have succeeded had 
it not been for the firmness of 
Governor Shute, the royal gov- 
ernor. So intense became the 
feeling of the opposition that men 
like Chief Justice Sewall and 
Secretary of State Addington 
openly " indicated their dissatis- 
faction" with the management of 
the college, saying to those of 
Connecticut, " How glad we are 
to hear of the flourishing schools 
and colleges of Connecticut, as 
it would be some relief to us 
against the sorrow we have con- 
ceived from the decay of them in 
this province." 45- But this oppo- 
sition, which continued through 
sixteen years until August, 1723, 
wholly failed in its purpose ; on 

* See Notes. the 



ioo Harvard University. 

the other hand, it resulted not 
only in the triumph of the presi- 
dent and corporation but it consol- 
idated and strengthened the new 
theological party, formed of such 
men as the Brattles, Benjamin 
Colman, and Leverett, until it 
became the dominant one in the 
colony. While these diverse 
sentiments continued respecting 
its management, the college 
doubtless suffered some injury, 
but, fortunately, they had also 
the effect to rally the friends of 
President Leverett more closely 
about him. This facl:, in addition 
to his eminent fitness for the 
place, his fairness in dealing with 
opponents and in settling the 
most difficult and perplexing 
questions, and his great personal 
popularity, doubled the number 
of students, increased the endow- 
ments (though it was a period of 
great financial depression), and 

made 



Harvard University. 101 

made the college in all respects 
more prosperous than at any 
previous time in its history. 
Though Cotton Mather tried to 
bring under suspicion the spirit- 
ual condition of the college dur- 
ing Leverett's administration, its 
Christian character seems to have 
been fully sustained. Still, as 
indicated, it became less strictly 
theological, and its theology, 
while orthodox, was less sectarian 
and bigoted than in the preced- 
ing century. Not alone were 
corporation and college agitated 
by sectarian controversies, but 
the whole province was disturbed 
by them. It was one of those 
pivotal periods, of which history 
furnishes many instances, when 
old forms of belief were chang- 
ing and giving place to new in- 
terpretations of truth and duty, — 
changes that appear inevitable, 
but of the immediate effect of 

which 



f02 Harvard University, 

which it is safe to predicate 
neither good nor bad. 

ESTABLISHMENT OF A DIVINITY 
PROFESSORSHIP. 

At the time of which we are 
writing — about the beginning of 
the eighteenth century — not on- 
ly was the theology changing, 
but also with increasing wealth 
there was coming about a revo- 
lution in the manner of living. 
All this was reflected in the 
little college circle, and though 
religious controversy ended most- 
ly with Leverett's administration, 
in 1724, and the college then or 
a little later entered upon a 
career of great and permanent 
prosperity, still many things 
would indicate that the morals 
of the students were becoming 
more and more open to censure. 
It seemed, therefore, very oppor- 
tune 



Harvard University. 103 

tune that at this time Mr. Hollis 
should offer to endow a divinity 
professorship in the college, " for 
the education," as he says, " of 
poor, pious, and able young men 
for the ministry." As Mr. Hollis 
believed in the tenets of the 
Baptist Church, his offer must 
be considered most remarkable, 
and the more so since denomi- 
national lines were then so rigidly 
drawn. But of such a liberal 
mind was he that he made but 
the single stipulation that no one 
should be refused the benefits of 
the theological professorship on 
account of his " belief and prac- 
tice of adult baptism." Of the 
professor chosen to fill this new 
chair he asked only that he sub- 
scribe to the following declara- 
tion : " That the Scriptures of 
the Old and New Testament 
are the only perfect rule of faith 
and manners." The selection 

of 



W4 Harvard University. 

of a suitable professor he left to 
the wisdom of the president and 
fellows, since he was to be under 
their inspection and that of the 
overseers of the college.* 

Mr. Hollis' generous offer re- 
ceived, as it merited, a grateful 
response from the authorities of 
the college. But alas for the 
weakness of human nature and 
the tenacity of dogmatic belief! 
After long wrangling over the 
unse6larian clause accompanying 
his proposal to endow the col- 
lege, the overseers determined, 
while accepting the gift, to ad- 
minister the trust in opposition 
to the will of the giver, and shut 
out from its benefits all who 
held to the doctrines of the Bap- 
tists. In fact, the test of admis- 
sion to this department of study 
was to be a declaration of belief 
in the divine right of infant bap- 
tism. But such was the Chris- 

* See Notes. tian 



Harvard University. 105 

tian forbearance of the generous 
benefactor that after information 
had reached him of the duplicity 
with which his gift had been re- 
ceived, he continued still until 
death his unselfish benefactions 
to the college. 

the finances: the college 
sustained by the liberal- 
ity of friends at home and 

ABROAD. 

The liberality of the American 
people since the opening of the 
present century in the endow- 
ment of schools, seems to be a 
heritage won from the Puritan 
fathers. Certainly there is no 
record elsewhere of such system- 
atic and generous giving for 
educational purposes as charac- 
terized the people of New Eng- 
land during the first half-century 
or more after the founding of 

the 



106 Harvard University, 

the college. Not Massachusetts 
alone but all the colonies were 
called upon to aid, both by send- 
ing pupils to its halls and by 
increasing its benefactions; and 
most nobly they responded. A 
reciprocal feeling thus sprang up 
between the college and its pat- 
rons that affected most favorably 
the interests of both : — the an- 
nual contributions strengthened 
" the bonds of affection towards 
it " and kept it near the hearts of 
the people, and the college in 
turn sent back their sons well 
trained and fitted to adorn the 
highest positions in church and 
state. 

The Commissioners of the 
United Colonies entered very 
heartily into the scheme of rais- 
ing funds for the college, and 
their efforts were seconded by 
the clergy and the most influen- 
tial of the laity. Such was then 

the 



Harvard University. wj 

the poverty of the people that 
the sums contributed were 
necessarily small. Connecticut 
gave annually the value of a 
peck of wheat for every family.* 
In Massachusetts they gave what 
they could best spare. With 
some it was a cow or sheep, or 
corn or salt; with others a piece 
of cloth or silver plate, tankard, 
goblet, or some other treasured 
heirloom of the family. 

As already stated, the General 
Court had at the outset voted 
£400 towards the establishment 
of the college, but Quincy says* 
that this sum was never specifi- 
cally paid. In lieu of this, it gave, 
in 1640 and following years, the 
income of the ferry between 
Charlestown and Boston, and at 
a later date (1659) an annual 
grant,* at first of £ too and after- 
wards of £150, for the support 
of the president, but it is said 

* See Notes. that 



io8 Harvard University. 

that during this period, and until 
the opening of the eighteenth 
century, the college received no 
grants or donations from the Gen- 
eral Court towards the erection 
of its buildings or the increase of 
its funds. These came wholly 
from the benefactions of private 
individuals. All the available re- 
ceipts of the college, from all 
sources, during the first eighteen 
years after it was founded " cer- 
tainly did not exceed £1,400, 
and probably were less than 
£1,000."* This had been ex- 
pended in erecting and repairing 
the college building, and in pro- 
viding for current expenses. In 
1655, as appears by the report 
presented to the General Court 
by the corporation and overseers, 
the real revenue of the college 
was about twelve pounds ster- 
ling a year, * besides fifteen 
pounds sterling received from 

* See Notes. scholar- 



Harvard University. log 

scholarships. In this report it is 
stated that there is " nothing un- 
der their hands which they can 
make use of, either for the pay- 
ment of debts or for the repairing 
of the college." In 1669, a new 
college building of brick, " fair 
and stately,"* was erected, cost- 
ing nearly £3,000, of which sum 
Boston gave £800, and Salem, 
Portsmouth, Hull, and other 
towns very liberally. Even the 
remote little town of Scarbor- 
ough, Maine, gave " two pounds, 
nine shillings and six pence." In 
all, besides private contributions, 
forty-four towns, mostly in Mas- 
sachusetts, sent in their quota in 
order to complete this building 
fund. From 1654 to 1700, the 
different sums given to the col- 
lege in money or commodities 
amounted to a little more than 
£6,000 sterling. In lands, during 
the same period, some two thou- 

* See Notes. Sand 



no Harvard University. 

sand acres were given, which in 
time became valuable. Besides 
this (in addition to the library of 
Harvard, of which the catalogue, 
still existing, in the handwriting 
of President Dunster, contains a 
list of three hundred and twenty 
volumes) the magistrates gave 
books valued at £200, and rare 
contributions were made by the 
clergy and others, and among 
these were gifts from English 
friends. Though some of the 
early records * have been de- 
stroyed, there are fortunately 
enough remaining to give a very 
accurate idea of the kind and 
amount of the benefactions made 
to the college. Besides these, a 
record was kept of the money 
raised by taxation, and how the 
several amounts were expended 
for college buildings, repairs, and 
the like.* The popular under- 
standing always was that John 

* See Notes. Har- 



Harvard University. 1 1 1 

Harvard's estate amounted to 
nearly £1,600, and his legacy is 
stated to have been £779 17s. 
2d. Still, there is no record to 
show that the college ever re- 
ceived more than £395 3s. Mr. 
Savage, the historian of Massa- 
chusetts, has suggested that a 
part of Harvard's property was in 
England, where, on account of 
the distracted state of the time, 
the administrators may have 
been unable to obtain it. 

The poverty of the college 
during the seventeenth century is 
well shown by an a6l of the cor- 
poration in April, 1695, when it 
was " voted that six leather chairs 
be forthwith provided for the use 
of the library and six more before 
the Commencement, in case the 
treasury will allow of it." Dur- 
ing President Leverett's admin- 
istration, the financial condition 
of the college was greatly im- 
proved 



; / 2 Harvard University. 

proved. The long contest over 
the provision in the will of Gov- 
ernor Hopkins of the Connecti- 
cut Colony, namely, " for the up- 
holding and promoting the king- 
dom of the Lord Jesus Christ in 
those parts of the earth," and for 
the " breeding up hopeful youth 
. . . both at the grammar school 
and college for the public service 
of the country in future times," 
to which the heirs had opposed 
obstacles, was settled by a decree 
in chancery, in 171 2. According 
to this decree, the amount of the 
legacy and interest from the death 
of Mrs. Hopkins, in 1699, in all 
£800, was to be paid " in trust 
for the benefit of Harvard Col- 
lege and the grammar school at 
Cambridge." This legacy was 
paid in 17 14, and the money 
vested in a board of trustees, 
who purchased with it an exten- 
sive and valuable tra&of land and 

gave 



Harvard University. 113 

gave to it the name of Hopkin- 
ton.* At nearly the same time 
(17 13) the college received the 
amount which had been bor- 
rowed by the colonial treasury 
more than sixty years before. At 
that date, 1647 or earlier, the 
Massachusetts Colony had re- 
ceived donations for the college, 
both from friends at home and in 
England, amounting in the ag- 
gregate to some three hundred 
pounds sterling. Being in need 
of funds, they had retained the 
money, paying therefor nine per 
cent interest for many years, and 
afterwards six per cent. 

It was during this period of 
which we have been speaking 
that the number of students in- 
creased so rapidly that the college 
dormitory could no longer ac- 
commodate all of them, and lodg- 
ings had to be sought in town. 
Accordingly, the friends of the 

* See Notes. Col- 



114 Harvard University. 

college turned to the General 
Court for help, and their peti- 
tions being indorsed, and repeat- 
edly pressed upon the attention 
of that body by the royal gov- 
ernor (Shute), the result was 
seen, in 1720, in Massachusetts 
Hall, a fine college edifice, cost- 
ing the province about £3,500 in 
currency. Originally it was to 
have been only fifty feet in length, 
but the design was afterwards 
enlarged to a hundred feet 

During President Wadsworth's 
incumbency (1725-1737) bene- 
factions, from home and abroad, 
in money, books, silver-plate, 
apparatus, and the like, were 
being constantly received. To 
these the General Court added 
£1,700. It has been complained 
that the college received com- 
paratively little help from the 
legislature. Of the first seventy 
years this appears to be true, but 

it 



Harvard University. 115 

it is not true of a like period fol- 
lowing. Among other acts it 
voted, in 1725, the sum of £1,000 
to build a new house for the 
president, and also increased his 
salary, — though such was the 
depreciation of the currency that 
the salary paid rarely equalled 
in value £150 English money. 
Excepting Harvard and Stough- 
ton Hall and Holden Chapel the 
charge of the college buildings 
was also borne by the colonial 
government. The library, how- 
ever, which was rebuilt after the 
fire of 1764, grew largely out of 
donations made by private indi- 
viduals. The total grants made 
to the college during its first 
century by the legislature of the 
Massachusetts Colony amounted 
to about £8,000, but a large por- 
tion of this was voted to pay the 
annual salary of the president,* 
and other current expenses. 
* See Notes. From 



/ / 6 Harvard University. 

From all other sources, mostly 
from private individuals, the col- 
lege received during the same 
period over £22,000. These 
sums in reality represent values 
ten or even fifty-fold greater 
than the same amounts would 
to-day. The liberality of the 
General Court, as also that of 
the people, to Harvard College 
should be gratefully acknowl- 
edged. The influence of this 
liberality has been felt during 
all the subsequent periods of 
New England history. Presi- 
ident Walker said,* in 1859, 
that almost all of the funded and 
productive property of the col- 
lege was the accumulation of 
donations by private individuals 
since the present century began. 
The same is as true to-day. 
We are not, however, to infer 
that the people of this century 
are necessarily more liberal, 

* See Notes. but 



Harvard University. 1 1 y 

but rather that they have larvnhv 
means. 

There was another source of 
income to the college, that we 
have omitted to name. From 
the beginning the students were 
required to pay a stated amount 
for tuition. How much it was 
at first we do not know. We 
know simply that it was paid in 
various commodities, grain being 
then "a legal tender for the pay- 
ment of debts." When the new 
code of laws was framed, in 1 734, 
it was made obligatory upon 
every student before being ad- 
mitted to the college to pay £5 
to the steward to defray " his fu- 
ture college charge," and to give 
a bond of £40 that he would pay 
college dues quarterly as they 
were charged in the " quarterly 
bills."* 

Harvard College had, during 
its first century, some devoted 

* See Notes. friends 



IJ6 Harvard University. 

fcvends, who should always be 
remembered in its history, as 
they stand pre-eminent, not alone 
for their benefactions, but also, 
and perhaps much more, for their 
unceasing interest in all that per- 
tained to its welfare. These 
were men like Chief Justice Sew- 
all, Thomas and William* Brat- 
tle, Joseph Dudley, Justice Wal- 
ley of the Supreme Court, the 
Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, and Thom- 
as Hollis. Other names will be 
recalled, like that of William 
Stoughton — lieutenant-governor 
of the province, and chief justice 
in the " Salem delusion " trials 
— who gave £1,000 in 1698 for 
the erection of Stoughton Hall; 
John Winthrop; the Saltonstalls, 
father and son — whose views of 
civil and religious liberty were 
in advance of their age; Robert 
Keyne; Edward Hopkins; Israel 
Stoughton, father of William; 
* See Notes. Henry 



Harvard University. i ig 

Henry Webb; William Brown; 
John Bulkley; and, across the 
water, Robert Thorner — whose 
donation turned Mr. Hollis' 
thoughts toward Harvard Col- 
lege; the Rev. Theophilus Gale, 
who gave his valuable library; 
and Matthew Holworthy, a mer- 
chant of Hackney, in the County 
of Middlesex, England, whose 
bequest was the largest gift in 
money (£1,000 sterling) made 
to the college during the seven- 
teenth century. Worthy to rank 
with these generous donors are 
also the names of many edu- 
cated women who at a very early 
period began their benefactions 
to the college, and continued 
them until after the close of the 
colonial era. 

But among all the generous 
friends of the college there was 
none whose name is so worthy 
to be placed upon the same scroll 

with 



120 Harvard University. 

with Harvard as Thomas Hollis. 
As a citizen of another land, and 
a believer in another theology 
from that held by the founders 
of the college, his unselfish gen- 
erosity and Christian catholicity 
of spirit make him a unique fig- 
ure among all the benefactors of 
his age. Pure philanthropy found 
in him one of its shining expo- 
nents, — men who so rarely bless 
our world that we are apt to look 
upon them as phenomena. From 
1 7 19 until his death in 173 1, he 
seems to have regarded the col- 
lege somewhat as a father might 
a favorite child. His interest in 
it was "general, constant, and 
unswerving." He was specially 
desirous that a good library 
should be provided for it. To 
this end he was ever searching 
in the bookstalls of London for 
choice and costly books to send 
out to New England.* He it 

* See Notes. was 



Harvard University. 121 

was who first suggested the need 
of a catalogue of the books in 
the library — a suggestion that 
was at once approved and a6ted 
upon by the corporation.* In 
addition to the Divinity profes- 
sorship, Mr. Hollis, in 1726, 
founded the professorship of 
Mathematics and Natural Philos- 
ophy, and gave thereto what 
was thought to be a liberal en- 
dowment for the time.* Besides, 
with remittances made by him 
and in accordance with his di- 
rections, ten scholarships were 
established for poor scholars, 
yielding each ten pounds a year 
in Massachusetts currency, or a 
little more than three pounds, 
English sterling. At his death 
he had contributed in various 
ways nearly £6,000, Massachu- 
setts currency, besides many 
valuable books. For years 
thereafter, his heirs, in the same 

* See Notes. g en ~ 



122 Harvard University. 

generous spirit, continued by 
an " ever-flowing fountain " of 
princely giving to keep fresh in 
the hearts of all lovers of Har- 
vard College the name of Hollis. 
The generosity of Thomas Hol- 
lis was also of great service to 
the college in later times by put- 
ting it into the hearts of the suc- 
cessful merchants of Boston and 
other cities to emulate his ex- 
ample. 

But a Hollis, a Holworthy, 
and others we have named, by 
no means exhaust the list of 
England's benefactors to Harvard 
College during the first century. 
Gifts from England flowed in, in 
a constant stream, from the time 
of its founding to a period sub- 
sequent to the Revolutionary 
War. These a6ls should also 
be gratefully remembered in 
New England, as they were evi- 
dently void of all personal inter- 
est 



Harvard University, 123 

est, being prompted simply by a 
love of learning, religion, and 
freedom. 

THE FIRST PRESIDENTS. 

But even more important to 
the success of the first American 
university than the devotion and 
rare liberality of its friends was 
the character of the men who 
presided over it and guided its 
destinies during the first hundred 
years. They were not simply 
the first men of their time, but 
such were their merits that most 
of them would have been distin- 
guished for learning and piety in 
any period of our history.* Of 
the first, Henry Dunster, we have 
already written; — a man of a 
sweet Christian spirit, faithful 
to every trust, brave in the midst 
of almost countless discourage- 
ments, and intensely loyal to 

* See Notes. every 



124 Harvard University. 

every interest of the college dur- 
ing fourteen years of unappreci- 
ated work. Upon him the re- 
sponsibility was placed of laying 
the foundation of the college so 
that a great edifice might be 
built thereon, and to him it was 
given to frame a charter and 
regulations for the government 
of the college, and extend what 
help was possible to needy stu- 
dents who sought his aid. Har- 
vard College may well be proud 
of its first president, while it 
sorrows over the intolerance of 
an age that made him one of the 
earliest martyrs in our land to 
the principle of free thought and 
speech." 34. The Rev. Charles 
Chauncy, who was chosen to 
succeed him, had been educated 
at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
but had years before come to 
America on account of persecu- 
tions suffered in England for his 

* See Notes. relig- 



Harvard University. 125 

religious teachings. He had 
successively filled the chairs of 
Hebrew and Greek in his Alma 
Mater, and was spoken of as a 
" thorough, accurate Hebrician, 
Grecian, and Latinist, and well 
skilled in all the learned sciences," 
and moreover widely known as 
a profound theologian. He was 
already far past the prime of life 
when called to the presidency of 
the young college, and his wide 
experience as pastor and teacher, 
added to great natural abilities, 
made him probably superior to 
Dunster in scholarly attainments; 
but he was cast in a different 
mould from his scrupulous and 
high-minded predecessor, and 
could secretly hold doctrinal 
views which he did not think 
prudent to proclaim openly. 
Samuel A. Eliot says that " the 
temperament which led him first 
to resist oppression and then 

yield 



126 Harvard University. 

yield to it, — now to decline be- 
ing silent and afterwards to con- 
sent, was very peculiar in that 
age, however common in later 
days, and one would think it 
little adapted to command the 
respe6t of the unbending fathers 
of New England."* Still, in 
spite of this assailable spot in his 
character, the college greatly 
prospered during the seventeen 
years of his presidency. He was 
a man to be esteemed by his 
contemporaries and to have his 
memory revered by his pupils. 
One of these refers to him as 
" this venerable old man," and 
another, Dr. Increase Mather, as 
" that most illustrious Chauncy, 
whom we may justly call ' Caro- 
lum Magnum.' " Peirce says * 
that " he was a star of the first 
magnitude in a brilliant constella- 
tion of New England worthies," 
and was " equal to the first char- 
* See Notes. afters 



Harvard University. i2j 

afters in theology in all Chris- 
tendom and in all ages."* 

From the death of Chauncy 
until now all the presidents have 
been graduates of the college, 
but of these only two during the 
first century achieved more than 
the ordinary success which at- 
tends faithful and meritorious 
service. They were Increase 
Mather and John Leverett. When 
Dr. Mather assumed the presi- 
dency in 1685, most of the Puri- 
tan leaders who founded and 
established the colony had passed 
away; and in their places were 
born Americans, who were dis- 
tinguished for that spirit of enter- 
prise and independence by which 
their descendents have since been 
known. The most influential 
among these were Graduates of 
Harvard College, and the one 
who perhaps most fully em- 
bodied the spirit of the time was 

* See Notes. Increase 



128 Harvard University. 

Increase Mather, its sixth presi- 
dent. In him were united the edu- 
cator, the preacher, and the poli- 
tician. A man of great force of 
character, of wonderful personal 
influence, of strong religious feel- 
ing, of scholarly habits, and 
unbounded faith in himself, he 
was also not without bigotry and 
superstition. A loyal adherent 
to the rigid doctrines of the 
fathers, he became the natural 
leader of the opposition to the 
new and more liberal theological 
party which grew up in college 
and church. As president of 
the college he increased its en- 
dowments and secured for it 
generous friends in England, but 
he never, save for a few months 
near the close of his administra- 
tion, lived in Cambridge, nor did 
he devote much time to the in- 
struction and discipline of the 
students. Giving due credit for 

all 



Harvard University. i2g 

all his services to the college, 
it would still seem to be true 
that to these we are not to look 
for his credentials to fame, but 
rather to his political services to 
the Massachusetts colony, and to 
his long and successful pastorate 
of the Old North Church. 

But in John Leverett the col- 
lege found a president who met 
the requirements for this high 
office. Years before, he had 
been a faithful instructor in the 
college, and later he had ac- 
quired fame as a legislator, and 
as justice of the supreme court 
of the colony. It is generally 
held that successful instructors 
are not the best managers of the 
financial affairs of literary insti- 
tutions, — that it is wiser to al- 
low them to spend the income 
than to be entrusted with the 
care of the property of the col- 
lege. But Leverett united in 

himself 



ijo Harvard University, 

himself the talents of the expe- 
rienced man of business and of 
the wise and popular instructor, 
and from 1707 to 1724, while its 
affairs were under his careful 
management, the college enjoyed 
continued prosperity. But his 
success, as stated elsewhere, was 
won in spite of the influence of 
a powerful faction, which, as 
well by active opposition as by 
petty acts (such as persuading 
the General Court to grant a sal- 
ary inadequate to his support), 
sought to embarrass, and, if pos- 
sible, to remove him from office. 
The corporation of the college 
was happily upon his side, and 
acted in harmony with his plans; 
but the hostility which pursued 
him throughout his entire admin- 
istration wore upon a not over 
rugged constitution and hastened 
his death, which occurred in 
May, 1724. His associates unite 

in 



Harvard University. i p 

in the warmest expressions of 
love and reverence for him. In 
a funeral discourse the Rev. 
Benjamin Colman says: "His 
morning, which we do but just 
remember, was so bright that 
it seemed to us even then 
the noon of life"; forty years 
ago we " beheld him esteemed 
highly . . . by those that were 
his fathers in age, and as for us 
we reverenced, feared, and loved 
him as if he had been gray in 
the president's chair." Another * 
says that he was " a great and 
generous soul," — a great divine, 
politician, and statesman, " few 
or none understanding the times 
and seasons, and what ought to 
be done, better than he." He 
was the counsellor to whom the 
people came " for information 
and advice." Perseverance, cour- 
age, steadiness, and resolution of 
mind, — a spirit born to rule, — 

* See Notes. Were 



i$2 Harvard University. 

were traits evident to all who 
knew him. " His speech, his 
behavior, and his countenance 
carried such majesty and marks 
of greatness in them ... as 
struck an awe upon the youth." 

As " a scholar and a man of 
science," President Leverett be- 
came widely known, being the 
first in America to receive the 
honor of membership in the 
Royal Society of England. 

The benefits springing from 
Leverett's work flowed on into 
the next administration, and in 
President Wadsworth's prosper- 
ous term, which closed the first 
century, we see gathered in the 
rich fruitage of the toils, sacri- 
fices, and faithful devotion of 
the early presidents of Harvard 
College. 




CAMBRIDGE COMMON IN 1784. 



NOTES. 



Page ii. — See Samuel A. 
Eliot's " A Sketch of the History 
of Harvard College." 

Page 12. — Edward Everett's 
speech at the celebration, 1836. 

Page 12. — Quincy's History 
of Harvard University, vol. i., 9. 

Page 13. — Dr. G. E. Ellis, in 
his address at the unveiling of a 
statue to Harvard, October 16, 
1884. At the time this address 
was delivered, he could only say 
of Harvard's " lineage and par- 
entage, his birthplace and birth- 
day, the dates of his leaving the 
Old World and of his arrival in 
the New," that they were still a 
mystery. But at length (see 

m New 



1 34 Harvard University. 

New England Historical and 
Genealogical Register for July, 
1885), through the intelligent 
and persistent research of Mr. 
Henry Fitz Gilbert Waters, " we 
are," as he says, " enabled to lift 
the veil that for nearly two hun- 
dred and fifty years has hidden 
our modest and obscure but gen- 
erous benefactor, the godfather 
of America's oldest university, 
the patron saint of New Eng- 
land's scholars." 

John Harvard, from whom the 
college takes its name, was one 
of the sorts of Robert Harvard 
and Katherine (Rogers) Har- 
vard, his wife, and was baptized 
in the parish of St. Savior's, 
Southwark, London, November 
29, 1607. The father was "a 
butcher," and died, probably 
from the plague, August, 1625, 
and was buried in the church of 
St. Savior's. John Harvard " set 

sail 



Harvard University. 1 35 

sail from England for America 
some time between 16 February 
and 5 May, 1637." 

Page 17. — This was before 
the creation of any legal board 
of trust, and hence, in 1654, when 
President Dunster resigned, he 
made this the excuse for his res- 
ignation, that he had never been 
legally elected. See Peirce, His- 
tory of Harvard University, p. 1 1. 

Page 18. — Everett's Orations 
and Speeches, vol. i., 175. 

Page 18. — This, the original 
plot of ground, was granted by 
the town of Newtown in 1638, 
and is at present the site of the 
buildings named after Holwor- 
thy, Stoughton, and Hollis. The 
Harvard Book, ii., 16. 

Page 19. — Capt. Edward 
Johnson's " Wonder Working 
Providence of Sion's Savior in 
New England." 

Page 21. — The parish minis- 
ters. 



1 36 Harvard University. 

ters usually prepared the young 
men for their examinations, and 
Latin was taught as a spoken 
language. Often teacher and 
pupil would take walks together 
through the fields and woods, 
and converse of all they saw in 
Latin. Thus the pupil got a 
practical knowledge of the an- 
cient, similar to that which is 
customary to-day in the study of 
a modern, language. The time 
was then specially favorable to 
this method of study, as few 
books were accessible, and such 
as they had, like the Bible, they 
knew almost by heart. This out- 
door life and daily communion 
with nature also helped to de- 
velop good moral and physical 
constitutions, and so, in spite of 
the poverty of books, by this 
training the foundation was laid 
for many a noble life and for 
high scholarly attainments. 

_Page 



Harvard University. 137 

Page 21. — According to the 
laws adopted in 1734, the exam- 
ination for admission was to be 
conducted by at least two of the 
tutors. In Latin the require- 
ments were similar, Virgil as 
well as Cicero being named, only 
it was not demanded of the can- 
didate that he should speak Latin. 
In Greek, in addition to the for- 
mer requirement, he must be able 
" to read, construe, and parse 
ordinary Greek, as in the New 
Testament, Isocrates, or such 
like," but no examination was 
required in other branches. 

Page 22. — See Peirce's His- 
tory of Harvard University, Ap- 
pendix, p. 4. 

Page 24. — See Quincy, vol. 
i., Appendix, 515. 

Page 24. — See Eliot's A 
Sketch of the History of Har- 
vard College, p. 10. 

Page 25. — Compare Peirce's 

History 



138 Harvard University, 

History of Harvard University, 
p. 125 and following. 

Page 27. — See Mass. Hist. 
Coll., vol. i., 245-6. 

Page 30. — History of New 
England, vol. ii., 399. Dr. Eliot, 
in " The Harvard Book," gives 
the date of the change, 1654. 

Page 30. — In the report of the 
first commencement, it is stated 
that the students of the first class 
" have been these four years 
trained up in university learning." 
We find, however, no mention 
of senior studies at so early a 
date. During the first century 
of the college many changes 
were made in the course of 
study. From an official report 
by the tutors in 1726, we learn 
that the freshmen had recitations 
four days in the week in the 
grammars, and in Cicero, Virgil, 
and the Greek Testament ; on 
Friday mornings in rhetoric; and 

on 



Harvard University. 139 

on Saturdays in the Greek cate- 
chism; and towards the close of 
the year in disputations on Ro- 
mus' definitions: the sophomores 
on Mondays and Tuesdays had 
disputations, and during five days 
they had recitations in Burgers- 
dicius' logic and a manuscript 
called New Logic, and in the 
ancient classical authors and nat- 
ural philosophy ; on Saturday 
mornings in Wollebius' Divinity, 
and towards the close of the year 
in Heereboord's Meletemata : 
the junior sophisters had, besides 
disputations, recitations in the 
Meletemata, in physics, ethics, 
geography, and metaphysics, and 
on Saturday morning in Wolle- 
bius' Divinity : the senior sophis- 
ters had disputations once a 
week, and recitations in arithme- 
tic, geometry, and astronomy, 
with Ames' Medulla on Satur- 
days, and towards the close of 

the 



140 Harvard University. 

the year a review of " The Arts." 
Unless excused, all students ex- 
cept the freshmen were also 
obliged four days in the week to 
attend instructions in Hebrew. 
It was only two or three years 
previous to this that Dr. Cotton 
Mather complained that the 
students were compelled " to get 
by heart a deal of insipid stuff, 
of which the tutors teach them 
to believe nothing," saying also 
of many of the books they stud- 
ied, that they " may truly be 
called Satan's library." Com- 
pare Quincy, vol. i., 341. 

Page 32. — No proceedings of 
the president and tutors, acting 
as a distinct board, are extant 
previous to 1725, so that a most 
important source of information 
respecting the condition and con- 
duct of the earlier students is 
closed to us. 

Page 36. — Compare Quincy, 

vol, 



Harvard University. 141 

vol. i., 515. It would seem from 
this that the position of the fresh- 
men had improved since the 
earlier days of the college. 

Page 44. — The sentence of 
expulsion was pronounced by 
the president in the college hall 
in the presence of the fellows, 
masters of arts, and students, 
after he had stated the nature of 
the offence, and solemnly admon- 
ished the offender. 

Page 45. — The insertion of 
some of these provisions was 
evidently due to a report made 
to the overseers in 1723, in 
which it is stated " that although 
there is a considerable number 
of virtuous and studious youth 
in the college, yet there has been 
a practice of several immorali- 
ties, particularly stealing, lying, 
swearing, idleness, picking of 
locks, and too frequent use of 
strong drink." A few years be- 
fore 



/^2 Harvard University, 

fore this, three students had been 
convicted of stealing poultry, and 
publicly reprimanded by the 
president as having committed a 
crime " against the laws of God 
and the House"; they were 
warned not to repeat the of- 
fence, and ordered to make 
restitution two-fold for each 
theft. Two others who were 
knowing to it were solemnly 
reprimanded. 

Page 5 1 . — See Mather's Mag- 
nalia, Book iv., 127. 

Page 52. — Cotton Mather 
quotes approvingly Vossius, who 
derives baccalaureus from batua- 
lius (French, bataille), from the 
Latin a batuendo^ — "a business 
that carries beating in it." 

Page 54. — Compare Peirce, 
History of Harvard University, 
Appendix, p. 7. 

Page 54. — Mather's Magna- 
lia, Book iv., 128, ed. 1702. 

Page 



Harvard University. 14} 

Page 54. — For these see 
Qirincy, vol. i., Appendix, 581. 

Page 55- ■ — Mather's Magna- 
lia. For the origin of university 
degrees, see " First German Uni- 
versities," in Education, 1884. 

Page 55. — But Dr. Woolsey 
says (Historical Discourse, pp. 
65-68) : " Commencement day, 
in the modern sense of the term 
— that is, a gathering of gradu- 
ates, members, and of others 
drawn together by a common 
interest in the college and in its 
young members who are leaving 
its walls — has no counterpart 
that I know of in the older insti- 
tutions of Europe." 

Page 57. — This printing press, 
which was first set up in Presi- 
dent Dunster's house, being the 
first one established north of 
Mexico, became for a time as cel- 
ebrated as the university presses 
of Oxford and Cambridge. The 

press 



144 Harvard University. 

press was brought from England 
by Jesse (or Joseph) Glover, who 
died on the passage over in 1638, 
and whose widow married Mr. 
Dunster. The first work pub- 
lished from it in America was in 
1639, anc * this was followed by 
the publication of almanacs, 
psalms, and religious works. Of 
these the most famous was the 
Bay Psalm Book, revised and 
edited by President Dunster, and 
the received version here and in 
England and Scotland. At the 
same time, through the Apostle 
Eliot, it aided the " Society in 
London for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in New England," by 
the issuing of works in the Ind- 
ian language. In 1654, this press 
was taken into the service of the 
Commissioners of the United 
Colonies. In 1662, there was 
appointed a censorship of the 
press, requiring a license from 

the 



Harvard University. 145 

the president of the college and 
two out of three other censors, 
who were associated with him 
by the General Court, before any- 
book could be published. This 
long continued to be the only 
printing press in British Amer- 
ica. Under the name of the 
" Daye Press," after long wan- 
derings, it is said to find a resting- 
place now among the relics of 
the State Historical Society of 
Vermont. 

Page 58. — In a note appended 
to the history of the Old South 
Church (by Benj. B. Wisner, p. 
77) it is stated that " Sir" was the 
title given to bachelors of arts, 
and that " Mr." belonged only 
to those who had taken a sec- 
ond degree in college, to all 
magistrates, to all who were or 
had been military officers as high 
as captain; those on whose coat 
of arms was inscribed ' genero- 

sus, 



146 Harvard University. 

sus,' to merchants of standing, 
and perhaps to some others." 

Page 59. — On the Commence- 
ment programmes of Harvard 
College, " dedicanV was used 
until 1865. Since then, " invi- 
tant " has been substituted, and 
the phraseology changed. 

Page 59. — See Mather's Mag- 
nalia, iv., 131 and following. 

Page 60. — The Bachelors 
walked first, two in a rank, and 
then the Masters, — all barehead- 
ed. Then the President followed 
alone. Next came the Corpora- 
tion and Tutors, two in a rank; 
then the honorable Governor and 
Council, and next to them the 
rest of the gentlemen. This is 
a description of a Harvard Col- 
lege procession in the eighteenth 
century. 

The earliest Commencements 
were held in the Hall of the col- 
lege. When they were first held 

in 



Harvard University. i4j 

in the " Meeting-house " is not 
known, but it was certainly be- 
fore 1725. 

Page 61. — But the exercises, 
except the opening and closing 
prayer by the president, were 
then mostly in Latin. There 
were also more disputations : 
e. g., " Whether every dissimula- 
tion be a vice ? " Denied by B. 
S. (or affirmed by C. D.). The 
same proposition was not af- 
firmed by one and denied by 
another. All had different top- 
ics. 

Page 68. — See Quincy's His- 
tory of Harvard University, vol. 
i., Appendix, 587-8, and Old Col- 
ony Laws of 1675. 

Page 69. — It appears that the 
corporation could expel its mem- 
bers and fill vacancies, or at least 
at one time assumed that power. 

Page 70. — The first seal was 
adopted in December, 1643, hav- 
ing 



148 Harvard University. 

ing, as at present, three open 
books — Bibles — on the field of 
an heraldic shield, with a syllable 
of Veritas inscribed upon each 
of them. The second seal (1650) 
had the same three Bibles with 
" In Christi Gloriam " in place of 
"Veritas," but during Dr. Increase 
Mather's presidency (1685-1701) 
— to aid, it is thought, in contin- 
uing the influence of the early 
Puritan doctrines — this was 
changed to " Christo et Ecclesiae." 
(See Quincy, vol. i., 49.) Still, 
the first motto is the only one 
that has the authority of any col- 
lege record. The late President 
Stearns, of Amherst College, said 
of American college mottoes, that 
the design of nearly all the ear- 
lier ones was an open Bible with 
a full-orbed, unclouded sun shin- 
ing upon it. This was to typify 
their mission: " They set them- 
selves up as the world's teach- 
ers." Page 



Harvard University. 149 

Page *j$. — The special au- 
thority possessed by each board 
was also shown during President 
Wadsworth's administration in a 
different way : A young man pe- 
titioned for the bachelor's degree, 
but declined to stand for exam- 
ination. The corporation natu- 
rally refused to confer the degree. 
Three years later, the same can- 
didate presented himself for the 
master's degree. This having 
been refused, he applied to the 
overseers. Though the college 
laws declared that " no academic 
degree should be given but by 
the corporation with the consent 
of the overseers," the latter voted 
to grant him the degree. But on 
Commencement day the presi- 
dent withheld the diploma. A 
year later, the corporation yield- 
ed, and the candidate received 
the master's degree. 

Page 76. — See Peirce's His- 
tory 



150 Harvard University. 

tory of Harvard University, Ap- 
pendix, p. 27. 

Page 78. — New charters 
were introduced, October 8, 1672 ; 
June 27, 1692 ; December 17, 
1696; June 2, 1697; July 13, 
1699, and July 12, 1700. 

Page 79. — The theory of 
the crown always was that " one 
of its most precious preroga- 
tives " was the granting of char- 
ters. Hence it thought that all 
charters granted by the colony 
had only the authority of private 
a6ts. 

Page 81. — The corporation 
still consists of seven members, 
but since 18 10 various acts have 
been passed to alter the constitu- 
tion of the board of overseers. 
As now constituted, the latter 
board consists of thirty mem- 
bers, divided into six classes, 
— a class of five being elected 
annually by the graduates of the 

college 



Harvard University. 151 

college for the term of six years. 
Since 1880, all graduates of five 
years' standing have been eligi- 
ble to membership in the board. 
Before that, a member must be 
a resident of Massachusetts. 

Page 83. — This question was 
definitely settled in the revision 
of the college laws in 1725. In 
this, the election of tutors was 
limited to three years, and 
fellows of the corporation were 
not required to be resident in- 
structors. 

Page 84 — See "American Col- 
leges," p. 107 et seq.j by Charles 
F. Thwing. 

Page 84. — In the English uni- 
versities, in the strict interpreta- 
tion of that time, the term usually 
meant residence at the college, 
engagement in instruction, and 
receiving therefor a stipend. 

Page 85.— The term "fellow" 
was first used at Harvard College 

about 



152 Harvard University. 

about 1647, but it was then only 
a sort of shadow of the English 
fellow. There could in reality 
be no fellows of the college until 
the granting of the charter. 

Page 85. — Samuel A. El- 
iot's, A Sketch of the History of 
Harvard College pp. 45-50. 

Page 90. — See Quincy, vol. 
i., 201 and 493. 

Page 93. — Quincy, vol. i., 46. 

Page 94. — Hutchinson says in 
his History of the Massachusetts 
Bay, vol. ii, 3, that from 1640 to 
1660 the people of the Massa- 
chusetts Colony approached very 
nearly to an independent com- 
monwealth, and in the system of 
laws and government which dur- 
ing this period they completed, 
they preferred to make the laws 
of Moses rather than the laws of 
England the groundwork of their 
code. As a result England an- 
nulled the original charter and 

estab- 



Harvard University. 153 

established for a time in the 
colonies a despotic government. 

Page 94.— Quincy, vol. i., 55. 

Page 98. — In forming the 
new corporation the members had 
been selected by Governor Dud- 
ley, who took the greater number 
from those friendly to Leverett. 

Page 99. — See Quincy, vol. 

i-> i99> 5 r 9- 

Page 104. — At Mr. Hollis' re- 
quest the president, aided by 
one or two others, drew up a 
" scheme " or plan of work for 
the guidance of the professor in 
divinity. This was submitted to 
Mr. Hollis, who, having sought 
the advice of a number of English 
pastors, asked that certain amend- 
ments be made to it. As amen- 
ded it contained eleven articles 
besides the declaration of faith 
already mentioned. This scheme, 
with but few unimportant altera- 
tions, was accepted by the over- 
seers 



i$4 Harvard University. 

seers of Harvard College and a 
letter of thanks ordered to be 
sent to Mr. Hollis "for his great 
bounty in general to the college, 
so in special for his most kind 
offer with respect to a professor 
of divinity." 

Page 107. — See Winthrop's 
Journal, pp. 214-216. 

Page 107. — History of Har- 
vard University, vol. i., 41. 

Page 107. — It was understood 
that after 1659 the voluntary 
contributions should no longer 
be collected, but in point of fact 
they continued to be given 
for many years, and were in 
money, lands, houses, and books. 

Page 108. — Quincy, vol. i.,22. 

Page 108. — The profits from 
the printing press that had been 
set up by President Dunster 
formed a part of this revenue. 

Page 109. — This was Har- 
vard Hall, and stood not far from 

the 



Harvard University. 755 

the site of the old building. It 
was not finished until 1682, and 
was destroyed by fire in 1764. 

Page no. — These records 
contain also an account of the 
studies in Harvard College, the 
meetings of the overseers and 
corporation, the early laws, or- 
ders, and forms of admission, 
deeds of property, etc. The so- 
called "Donation Book" is a 
compilation of grants, donations, 
and the like, and is of later date. 

Page no. — Of all these mat- 
ters sufficiently exa6l lists may 
be found in Eliot's A Sketch of 
the History of Harvard College, 
Appendix, Tables I., II., and III.; 
also in Quincy's and Peirce's his- 
tories. 

Page 113. — See American 
Journal of Education, 1857, pp. 
682-3, or the tables found in the 
Appendix to Eliot's A Sketch of 
the History of Harvard College. 

Mr. 



156 Harvard University. 

Mr. Hopkins had also, in 1657, 
given the value of £100 in " corn 
and meate," as is shown in 
Treasurer Danforth's account. 

Page 115. — President Dunster 
was promised an annual support 
of £60, but such was the indif- 
ference of the General Court, or 
the poverty of the country, that 
during some years he did not re- 
ceive more than half that amount. 
President Chauncy,who followed 
him, suffered also from what his 
great-grandson and biographer 
calls the " niggardly disposition " 
of the representatives in the Gen- 
eral Court. The later presidents, 
however, had little reason to 
complain (unless we except Pres- 
ident Leverett), as the grants for 
their salary were regularly made, 
and also enlarged as the colony 
became more prosperous. Grants 
were likewise made towards 
meeting the salaries of professors 

and 



Harvard University. 157 

and assistants, where the income 
from endowments had proved 
insufficient. 

Page 116. — Boston Almanac 
for 1859. 

Page 117. — A debit and credit 
account was kept by the steward 
with each member of the college. 
Undergraduates were charged 
for " commons and sizings," tui- 
tion, "gallery," — probably a seat 
in the church, — study-rent, " bed- 
making," and " fire and candle." 
A few payments were made in 
silver, but the greater part were 
commodities, carried out as so 
much money, such as " a sheep, 
weighing sixty-seven pounds = 
£1 is."; "two bushel of wheat" 
eight shillings, etc. 

Page 118. — William Brattle, 
who was for a long time tutor in 
the college, so endeared himself 
to the students, during a visita- 
tion of the small-pox, that they 

ever 
So 



1^8 Harvard University. 

ever after styled him the " Father 
of the College." In later life he 
became famous as a preacher. 

Page 1 20. — This was even 
more notably true of his grand- 
nephew, Thomas Hollis, Esq., of 
London, who forty or fifty years 
later gave so liberally in money 
and books to the library of Har- 
vard College. 

Page 121. — This catalogue 
was made in 1723, when there 
were found to be in the college 
library about 3,500 volumes. At 
least two-thirds of these were 
theological and most were in the 
learned languages, principally 
Latin. See Peirce's History of 
Harvard University, p. 108. 

Page 121. — The income from 
it was twenty-six pounds sterling 
(eighty pounds Massachusetts 
currency), which was then con- 
sidered an " honorable stipend " 
for a professor. Peirce, ibid., p. 
98. Page 



Harvard University. 159 

Page 123. — They were in their 
order of service : Henry Dunster, 
1 640- 1 654 ; Charles Chauncy, 
1654-167 1 ; Leonard Hoar, 1672- 
1675; Urian Oakes, 1675-1681; 
John Rogers, 1682-1684 ( tne 
lirst layman who served as presi- 
dent) ; Increase Mather, 1685- 
1701; Samuel Willard [vice- 
president], 1 701-1707; John 
Leverett, 1707-17 24; and Ben- 
jamin Wadsworth, 1725-1737. 
All were ordained ministers ex- 
cept Rogers and, possibly, Lev- 
erett. 

Page 124. — The Bible that 
belonged to President Dunster, 
of which the Old Testament is in 
Hebrew and the New in Greek, 
— both fine specimens of early 
printing, — has been presented to 
the college and is highly valued. 

Page 126. — A sketch of the 
History of Harvard College, p. 

17- 

Page 



160 Harvard University. 

Page 126 and 127. — Peirce 
pp. 31 and 32, quoted from Mass! 
Hist. Coll., ii., 260, second series. 

Page 131.— Nathaniel Apple- 



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